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Thursday, February 12, 2004
Seizure of 1 carrera gets cop 6 charges
By Oscar C. Pineda
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
FOR doing his job of seizing an illegal gambling machine, a Lapu-Lapu City policeman is instead facing six charges that the video carrera operator filed against him.
SPO2 Raul Bacayo charged Ramil D. Ybañez with illegal gambling, after raiding the alleged operator’s house last Jan. 30.
Ybañez answered with a “rain of charges” against the policeman before the People’s Law Enforcement Board (Pleb).
He accused Bacayo of illegally searching and damaging his house and property, among other charges. The four policemen who accompanied Bacayo during the Friday night raid were spared of the charges.
During the raid, Bacayo and his team seized a video carrera machine in Ybañez’s annex house in Sitio Seaside, Barangay Pajo.
Bacayo requested Ybañez to bring the machine out to avoid trouble, but the latter “displayed arrogance” and disobeyed them.
He even threatened them with charges if they pulled out the unit.
The policemen pulled out the unit, upon the approval of Senior Insp. Milagros Soliano, the officer-of-the-day, and Insp. Felix Pacaldo, the area commander. They charged Ybañez with illegal gambling, his second in a year.
Summon
Six days after the raid, on Feb. 5, Pleb summoned Bacayo over six charges: violation of domicile, malicious mischief, abuse of authority, illegal search and confiscation, gross neglect of duty and grave misconduct.
The charges arose from the confiscation of Ybañez’s video carrera unit that Friday night.
Bacayo was only doing his job, said Lapu-Lapu City Police Chief Louie Oppus, who was also surprised of the turn of events.
Aside from Pleb, the Lupon Tagapamayapa of Barangay Pajo also summoned Bacayo over the same incident, with Ybañez as complainant.
Pajo Barangay Captain Leo Mercado, a close ally of Mayor Arturo Radaza, is handling the complaints against Bacayo on the video machine.
In his affidavit, Ybañez alleged that Bacayo of damaging his house and appliances.
“Several appliances were lost or nowhere to be found like our cassette recorder and my wristwatch,” as stated in his affidavit.
Bacayo said the accusations were fabricated.
Bacayo said it is very unlikely for him to steal because his salary is big enough for his family to live decently.
Secured
He said they cannot avoid damaging a portion of the house because the machine was intentionally secured to avoid confiscation.
Even Mayor Radaza, in their operation last year, noted that video carrera units these days are secured with large chains. The units are even cemented to the wall so one needs to break it to get it.
And in bringing the machine out, one needs to break the small door opening or dismantle the unit, or both, as what happened in Ybañez’s house.
But Bacayo said he was not the one who actually broke portions of the house and dismantled the unit, pointing to his fellow officers whom he did not identify.
He accused Ybañez of harboring ill motive for charging him and singling him out among the four other policemen present during the operation.
On having no search warrant, Bacayo said the machine was in plain view when they went to the area.
He said Ybañez apparently waived his constitutional right against unreasonable search and seizure because he allowed them in to bring out the machine.
On record
On Feb. 4, 2003, City Mayor Arturo Radaza and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) confiscated and destroyed 88 video carrera machines in Lapu-Lapu City.
Ybañez house was raided in that operation and was charged for the first time. The illegal gambling charge stemming from Bacayo’s raid on Ybañez’ house was his second.
Cebu Provincial Police Office Director Maximo Calimlim at that time ordered then police chief Paquito Balandres to explain why it took another police unit to confiscate that number of illegal machines in his area.
In his reply, Belandres said he ordered three Lapu-Lapu city policemen to explain why the policemen returned last Feb. 1, 2003 the video carrera machines confiscated earlier.
Belandres apparently wanted to know if they were bribed into returning the machines.
The officer only found a relief when he served Ybañez’s arrest warrant last Feb. 10 for illegal gambling.
The warrant stemmed from Radaza’s anti-video carrera operation in February last year.
Ybañez was briefly detained and was able to post bail.
(February 12, 2004 issue)
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