29/09/2026
TATAK
NO SAFEHOUSE IS SAFE FROM MENDEZ
For robbery syndicates operating across Central Luzon, there is a simple reality they may now have to confront: no safehouse is safe from Mendez.
That is because Police Regional Office 3 director PBGen. Jess Mendez brings to the job something forged through years of intelligence work — the ability to look beyond the crime itself and follow the people, movements and connections behind it.
Mendez is a certified intelligence practitioner whose police career developed through intelligence assignments.
He understands that fighting organized criminals requires more than responding after a robbery.
It requires gathering information, connecting the dots, identifying the players and locating where they operate.
The latest Zambales operation illustrates that approach.
Mendez disclosed that the robbery group had been linked to incidents in parts of Bataan, Olongapo and Zambales.
Police used backward and forward CCTV tracking, suspect profiling and other intelligence efforts until individual members were identified and their residences and safehouses were traced.
Police also recovered vehicles allegedly used by the group.
According to Mendez, the gang normally targeted convenience stores and gasoline stations — businesses that could become vulnerable to armed robbery because of their accessibility and cash transactions.
The intelligence work eventually translated into action.
On September 26, PRO3 conducted three separate operations in Zambales.
Two search-warrant operations in San Antonio town resulted in the recovery of six fi****ms, a hand gr***de and assorted am******on.
In Cabangan, another operation led to the arrest of a suspect and the seizure of a caliber .38 revolver, 1.61 grams of suspected shabu and 30.1 grams of suspected ma*****na.
Mendez said four members of the robbery group have already been arrested, while efforts continue to identify and apprehend all possible members.
And that is why no safehouse is safe from Mendez.
The operation demonstrates that intelligence is not simply information kept in police files.
When properly developed, verified and acted upon, intelligence becomes the roadmap that takes police from a robbery scene to the suspects, from suspects to their vehicles and hideouts and ultimately to arrests.
For Mendez, the mission goes beyond one operation or one robbery group. It is about disrupting criminal networks before they can victimize more people.
In Central Luzon, the intelligence officer in Mendez has clearly become the crime-fighter in the field.
The message is simple: criminals can hide their faces, change vehicles and move between safehouses — but when intelligence finds the trail, PRO3 under Mendez knows where to look.
