Raps vs 2 cops dismissed

Saturday, January 21, 2012

GRAVE misconduct charges filed before the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for the Military and other Law Enforcement Offices against two policemen of Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) were dismissed.

The charges were filed in 2004 by Bacolod businesswoman Rosalie Jaypee-Garcia against Special Operation Group head Police Supt. Santiago Rapiz, a former Station 4 commander, and PO3 Rodel Delos Reyes.

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Rapiz said they only received the dismissal decision on Friday.

Rapiz and Delos Reyes were charged by Jaypee-Garcia for alleged connivance with her estranged husband Jesus Garcia in fabricating evidence in relation to the attempted parricide and attempted murder case filed by Jesus Garcia against his wife.

In its six pages decision dated December 7, 2011, approved by Orlando Casimiro, overall Deputy Ombudsman, the Ombudsman stated that it found that respondents did not commit any act of irregularity in the performance of their duties that would constitute grave misconduct. As such, there’s no reason to hold them administratively liable.

It was ruled that in the absence of substantial evidence and any ill motive on the part of the police officers to falsely impute such offense against the complainant, the presumption of regularity in the performance of their official duty stands. The basic rule is that mere allegation is not evidence and is not equivalent to proof.

The complainant claimed that the police officers, together with her estranged husband, fabricated a piece of evidence in support of the criminal case against her, her mother and a relative, by allegedly mixing a liquid substance with kerosene gas and Rapiz submitted said liquid substance to the PNP Crime Laboratory in Iloilo City for examination.

The complainant added that Rapiz and her estranged husband were friends and that the former, allegedly for a consideration, used his power as police officer in fabricating evidence in favor of Jesus Garcia to the prejudice of the complainant.

Rapiz said in 2004, when the husband of the complainant went to Station 4 for a blotter report, he didn’t know that the couple had pending cases against each other. He stressed that he was only doing his job when the husband of the complainant reported in Station 4 that his wife tried to kill him by allegedly mixing a liquid substance on his drinking water.

And without their knowledge Jesus Garcia took the copy of the result from PNP crime lab and filed charges against his wife, and to their surprise, his wife also filed a case against them, Rapiz added.

Rapiz said they are now happy that the case was already dismissed.