THE OUTGOING commander of the Area Police Command- Western Mindanao Lt Gen Vicente Danao Jr. visited the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) to thank them for their support when he was the city police director seven years ago.
Danao was the guest of honor and speaker during the flag-raising ceremony on Monday at the DCPO headquarters in Camp Capt. Leonor Domingo along San Pedro Street.
The DCPO honored Gen. Danao during his sentimental journey in the flag-raising ceremony at the headquarters. Danao will vow out from the PNP from his 29 years in the service. He was the former director of the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) from October 2013 to June 2016.
He was known for his toughness, particularly on erring police officers who abuse their authority through corruption and crime. He was also not above cursing the members of the force to put them in place.
During his time, he warned scalawags, “When you do something illegal, you have two choices: either you go AWOL, or I will kill you.”
In his message to the DCPO, “It’s high time to really change for the better kasi what we’ll be doing now will be for the future of our children.”
Danao cited an example when he was the Manila Police District director where he found many rouge police officers involved in illegal activities. However, he managed to instill discipline in two or three months.
He even described it as a crying time of his career as a police official.
When you ask him enough questions, Danao starts to sound like former President Rodrigo Duterte, who was mayor when the outgoing general was the DCPO director. And like his former boss, Danao hates illegal drugs more than anything.
In an interview on Monday at the sidelines of the ceremony, Danao was asked about his greatest achievement as a top official in the PNP organization.
“Syempre, yung naabot natin (Of course, what I’ve achieved so far). Actually, I never expected that I will reach this far if not only for the twist in fate that our former mayor became President, so yun ay malaking pasalamat ko (I’m really grateful) not only to the PNP organization, not only to the mayor (Duterte) and but also to the people whose trust has given to me, as my greatest achievement, as I reached this three-star [rank],” Danao said.
Danao will be retiring on Aug. 10, 2023, and he planned on spending more time with his family rather than entering the turbulent world of politics.
Danao is a true-blue Davaoeño cop, a part of the so-called Davao’s finest.
He has flanked former President Duterte for decades, starting as a special force cop after graduating from the Philippine Military Academy in 1991. In 1995, he became the commander of one of the smallest stations in the city, which covers the city’s Baguio district.
From 2001 to 2007, Danao steadily rose as police commander of Davao’s largest district of Talomo, coinciding with Duterte’s terms as mayor.
Danao then advanced to the Davao Regional Police headquarters when he was promoted to colonel before returning to Davao City as its police chief in October 2013.
When Duterte assumed office as president, Danao was assigned chief of counterintelligence of the Directorate for Intelligence, then deputy chief for operations of the powerful Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).
Danao has been with the force for over 29 years and has served as acting police chief from May to August 2022, deputy chief for operations, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office from 2020 until 2022, deputy director for operations of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, as task force commander under the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs, and as chief of police in two cities and two regions.
His longest term as police chief was in Davao City between October 2013 and June 2016.
