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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider PNP Chief Torre vows to arrest high-profile individuals evading the law: 'We'll use force if necessary'

PNP Chief Torre vows to arrest high-profile individuals evading the law: 'We'll use force if necessary'

Published Jun 6, 2025 05:25 pm
Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief, General Nicolas Torre III (Photo: PNP)
Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief, General Nicolas Torre III (Photo: PNP)

The Philippine National Police (PNP) will see to it that high-profile individuals evading the law are apprehended even if it requires the use of force, the nation’s top police official said on Friday, June 6.

PNP Chief, Police General Nicolas Torre III said continuous manhunt operations are being conducted against former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Gerald Bantag, former police Lt. Col. Rafael Dumlao III, and other high-profile subjects.

“Our manhunt operations are continuous regarding that matter. We have arrested a lot of high-profile subjects especially when I was at the CIDG [Criminal Investigation and Detection Group] but there are those who still evade the law,” Torre said in a radio interview over DZRH.

He said the PNP has “leads” as to where the said individuals are. Now that he is the PNP chief, Torre said he will allocate “enough resources” to find and arrest them.

“You all have seen how I operate if the subject is [a] high-profile [individual]. We will use intelligence and if there is resistance, we really have to use force so they will not be able to fight back,” Torre said.

“At the end of the day. I’m confident that we will arrest them and they will be placed where they rightfully belong,” he added.

Torre was behind two of the biggest PNP operations in recent history.

He was the acting regional director of the Davao Police Regional Office when he led an operation on June 24, 2024 to arrest Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) founder Apollo Quiboloy, a self-proclaimed “Son of God” who was charged by a federal grand jury in the United States with accusations of sexual misconduct involving minors, human trafficking, and fraud.

The operation resulted in a two-week standoff that ended in Quiboloy’s arrest on Sept. 8, 2024.

After his stint in Davao, Torre was promoted as the director of the CIDG where he accomplished something unthinkable at the time: arresting former president Rodrigo Duterte following the transmission of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant through the Interpol, and sending him to The Hague, Netherlands to face trial for crimes against humanity of murder over his bloody drug war.

With the same level of confidence, Torre ensured that Roque, Bantag, Dumlao, and other high-profile subjects would be jailed.

Roque is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by Angeles City Regional Trial Court for alleged violation of Republic Act 9208, or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, in connection with the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (Pogo) operations of the Lucky South 99 in Porac, Pampanga. He previously denied involvement in any illegal Pogo activity.

Bantag, on the other hand, is facing, murder charges after being tagged as the alleged mastermind behind the assassination of broadcast journalist Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa in 2022.

Dumlao, meanwhile, is the alleged brains behind the kidnap-slay of Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo inside the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City in 2016.

Related Tags

Nicolas Torre III PNP PNP Chief Harry Roque Gerald Bantag Rafael Dumlao III
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