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Monday, April 11, 2005
Editorial: The police stain
INSPITE of the case of malversation of funds filed by several police trainees and raised before the public by opposition Councilor Zaldy Ocon and the complaint to be lodged on him by four ranking police officers City Police Director Honorio Cervantes must feel relieved that he is supported by Mayor Vicente Emano.
And why not for based on his comments in a local radio program the mayor again referred to the councilor as an "idiot and moron" and indicated that Cervantes still enjoys his confidence as the city police chief. Despite this however the revival of the malversation funds case on him has placed a cloud of doubt on his standing at least within his people in the ranks.
We need not remind that these charges were unveiled even as the city police had been dealt three separate blows on its image: the claim of a slaughterhouse for Batang Mindanao 29 (BM 29) gang members, the discovery that four police officers are tied to a businessman's kidnapping and now these complaints against Cervantes.
Through all this the city police chief had brushed these developments aside but one must remember that these have occurred even as he is barely five months into his tenure as the city police director. No police official in the city in recent memory had ever encountered rough waters early on upon his assumption to office.
Mostly these police officials like Cervantes's predecessors like Montalba, Felicisimo Khu and Alberto Olario were dropped from the top city police post due to their lack of academic quallifications and barely little more. And now comes Cervantes who at the onset is qualified but was found to have some baggage so to speak.
So it's interesting to note if there would be more undercurrents of discontent rumbling about within the city police ranks. Lately Cervantes said the four police officials who plan to file a complaint against him are "sour-grapping" in that all of them received transfer and even demotion from him.
Maybe but those other snags aren't so easy to dismiss; for one the funds case which the regional Internal Affairs Service (RIAS) said was dismissed due to the non-interest of the police officers to pursue may indicate something is amiss.
Last we heard, two police officers using Cervantes's name allegedly bought drugs along with a guest relations officer (GRO). What's happening to the city police?
If Cervantes is serious about this cleanup, he'd better clear both his name and the city police.
(April 11, 2005 issue)
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