Wednesday, April 25, 2007 Troopers forced to buy 'balut' at P12 each By Nicolas C. Delfin
VICTORIAS CITY -- Another controversy rocked the leadership of a controversial police official who is currently the commander of Regional Mobile Group in Western Visayas based in Camp Anecito Lacson.
This was after several RMG troopers granted an exclusive interview with Sun.Star Tuesday and revealed all their ill-feelings towards Senior Superintendent Pedro Merced and some RMG officials who are allegedly monopolizing businesses inside the camp and forcing them to buy their products.
These include the compulsory purchase of "balut" at P12 each from Police Officer 1 George Romo, police instructional materials in a compact disc worth P200 from Police Officer 2 Raphael Panique and energy drink from Police Officer 2 Reggie
Rebadonia and patches from a certain Police Officer 1 Dumdum.
Worse, the complaining troopers also accused Merced's niece of manning a canteen inside the camp and charging each trooper P30 per meal or P90 per day or a total of P960 for 15 days.
Even if we are outside of the camp and not consuming meals from the canteen of Merced's niece, yet we're shocked to see our pay slip still having deduction of P960 per pay day, they also told Sun.Star.
Asked for comment over a phone interview Tuesday night, Merced denied the allegations.
"I really don't know about those complaints. Dumdum has been detailed to other assignment and was not here anymore. As far as I am concerned, I never received any complaint from my troopers," he stressed.
He, though, vowed to investigate these complaints and promised to act as soon as possible.
The complaining troopers, however, want an immediate intervention of Police Regional Director Wilfredo Dulay, Sr. on these matters. For them, this is too much.
They claimed that they were forced to eat balut every night and pay P12. If not, Romo will still charge each of them P12 per night or P180 per pay day.
Rebadonia, on the other hand, is selling a bottle of energy drink with a vitamin capsule at P250 per pair, they said, adding, "This is overpriced."
Panique, meanwhile, sells CDs containing police instructional materials at P200 each, although they've already bought these CDs during their training at the Regional Training Center in Bakyas, Mansilingan, Bacolod City.
Worse, Dumdum who reportedly got money from them for their uniform patches had failed to deliver the items until now.
"With this, what is left of our salary every pay day is less than P200 only."
Merced, meanwhile, said, "I will assess the complaints and as much as possible, I have to render a precise investigation to clear these allegations once and for all."
