Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Involvement of police ‘challenge to do better’
THE alleged involvement of three operatives of the Vice Control Section (VCS) in extortion should be taken as a challenge to perform better.
Acting Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Patrocinio Comendador told his men this during a staff conference yesterday.
The VCS was disbanded shortly after the arrest of SPO1 Jaime Otadoy last Wednesday.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña, meanwhile, gave Comen-dador his vote of confidence, saying a single incident is not enough to say that the police chief failed in his task and showed weakness in leadership.
1 case
“If this keeps coming up, then we question it. One case cannot be used as basis in judging his leadership,” the mayor said.
Otadoy was arrested in an entrapment by a joint team from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 and the Police
Regional Office (PRO) 7 inside the (CCPO) headquarters at the Camp Sotero Cabahug for allegedly extorting P2 million from businessman Reuel Lerio.
PO1 Raniel Capangpa-ngan and PO3 Rey Albotra, who escaped arrest, were also named in the simple robbery and extortion complaints filed by the NBI 7.
The incident prompted Comendador to disband the special unit and place its chief, Insp. Wilbert Parilla, under floating status.
At City Hall, the mayor said that as long as the functions of the disbanded VCS are still observed, he has no problem with Comendador’s decision to dissolve the unit following Otadoy’s arrest.
“They cannot be effective because of the stain, whether or not they are guilty. There is enough stain into this,” he said in a press conference right after arriving from a foreign trip.
“Vice Control Section is an office. You keep the function, but you change everyone,” he added.
The mayor said that simply removing personnel and replacing them will not do, as “the people you leave behind might be the bad ones.”
He said all the VCS men should just have been replaced with new set of personnel.
Told that although the VCS was disbanded and its personnel distributed to different police units, the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau (CIIB) will assume all VCS functions, the mayor said it is fine with him.
Comendador said he will just wait for the NBI 7 to wrap up its investigation on Parilla and on his possible liability before the CCPO conducts an administrative investigation against the beleaguered official.
He explained that disbanding VCS was necessary because “it is no longer a working unit.”
Besides, Comendador said, under the new staffing pattern of the PNP which was implemented last year, VCS is no longer included.
Evaluation
He said several police operatives at the VCS have been involved in several extortion activities. In five years, Comendador said, six policemen were subjected to entrapment by NBI 7 agents for alleged extortion on suspected drug personalities.
He said all the responsibilities of the VCS—campaign against prostitution, all forms of illegal gambling and anti-illegal drug campaign, will be addressed by the CIIB.
Comendador created a three-member board headed by Senior Insp. Lourdes Ingente to evaluate the performance and derogatory records of the members of the disbanded VCS.
The evaluation will be used as basis on the reassignments of the VCS operatives. At present, they are temporarily absorbed by CIIB.
Albotra and Capangpa-ngan, Comendador said, may be transferred to the Security and Service Group. (JST/RHM)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 29, 2007 issue)
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