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Thursday, September 01, 2005
Tom might disband mobile patrol
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 to help local police properly respond to alarms.
He also got his wish to oust Supt. Herman Lungayan from the Mobile Patrol Group (MPG), now headed by Chief Insp. Arnel Banzon.
Osmeña made the request to the NBI, believing that police are not familiar with rules of engagement.
The request came even as the agency made headlines three years ago when its agents blocked and strafed a van of Plantation Bay Hotel, injuring five employees, in Looc, Mandaue City last Dec. 13, 2002.
The NBI operatives were conducting an operation and mistook the van as that of the persons they were trying to chase. When the van did not stop because the employees thought the men that blocked them were robbers, the agents opened fire.
Yesterday, however, Osmeña said the NBI is willing to extend a hand, following the death of two policemen who responded to a “trouble alarm” and ended up getting killed in the hands of an amok, who was also gunned down, Sunday night.
Vegetable vendor Prudencio Borres clubbed PO2 Armando Juegos with a piece of wood and later shot dead the policeman with his own .38 revolver.
PO2 Oliver Jamboy shot Borres dead, but was also wounded in the neck.
Disband
The two policemen were taken to a hospital; Juegos died on the way while Jamboy died hours later.
Osmeña is also thinking of disbanding the Mobile Patrol Group (MPG), adding that since the Crime Suppression Unit (CSU) was created, its members were the ones who respond to alarms and not the MPG.
“We will look into this. What is MPG for? We might as well disband the MPG,” he said.
As on offshoot of last Sunday’s incident, Osmeña also said that instead of just two officers, three policemen will now board each patrol vehicles in responding to alarms.
That way, the possibility that they get caught off-guard is lessened.
He earlier said Juegos and Jamboy did not have the presence of mind, thinking they were just dealing with the usual domestic spat, with the contending parties already cowed by their presence.
The mayor also planned to provide policemen with handheld radios so they are in constant communication with their colleagues while dealing with an alarm.
Reassignment
The full extent of what improvements should be adopted, though, will be known only after completing the case study he commissioned to determine what went wrong.
Starting today, Banzon replaces Lungayan in supervising the MPG. Lungayan is now with the Carbon Police Station.
Aside from heading the MPG, Banzon is also overall in-charge of the Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) team and the CSU.
Supt. Melvin Gayotin issued the order on Banzon’s designation after Osmeña asked that Lungayan be relieved following the death of Juegos and Jamboy.
Gayotin also approved Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau’s recommendation for posthumous awards for the two.
Juegos and Jamboy, according to the CIIB, “religiously performed their duties” at that time.
The two policemen’s death is the ultimate price or symbol of “genuine police service,” added the report.
CIIB Chief Pablo Labra II yesterday submitted the report, which also recommended recognition for Vaughn Arreola.
Arreola was the off-duty traffic enforcer who brought Juegos and Jamboy to the hospital. (RHM/JST)
(September 1, 2005 issue)
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