President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed former Philippine National Police chief General Nicolas Torre III as the new general manager of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Malacañang announced.
Palace Press Officer and Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro confirmed Torre’s appointment on Friday afternoon, Dec. 19. He will succeed outgoing MMDA General Manager Procopio Lipana.
Since Torre’s relief as PNP chief in August, Malacañang had signalled plans to offer him another government role. At the time, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jonvic Remulla explained that President Marcos “made a difficult but necessary decision” to remove Torre from his duties, stressing that the nation’s security apparatus must always operate with the framework of the law.
Remulla added that Torre’s removal was not an easy choice but was carried out in the national interest.
Torre has overseen two high-profile police operations—the arrests of Kingdom of Jesus Christ leader Apollo Quiboloy and former president Rodrigo Duterte—before he was appointed as PNP chief.
He was the first Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) graduate to be appointed as PNP Chief. He entered the police force after graduating from the PNPA in 1993.
He ranked fourth out of the 90 cadets of the PNPA in 1993.
Torre has three master’s degrees, one in Public Administration at the Philippine Christian University, Business Administration at the International Academy of Management and Economics, and Educational Management at Samar College.
Torre held various positions in the police force across the country, including chief of police of Mabalacat, Pampanga, and Batangas City, and provincial director of Samar province, and even chief information officer of the Police Regional Office 4A, or Calabarzon. (Betheena Unite)
