Saturday, September 29, 2007 Chief urges suspension of cop
ACTING Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO) Director Rodel Calungsud has recommended that Senior Insp. Jose Liddawa be placed under preventive suspension for 45 days.
He found probable cause to charge Liddawa with an administrative case of misconduct.
This was the recommendation in his pre-charge evaluation report submitted to the Regional Investigation and Detective Management Division (RIDMD) yesterday.
Division Chief Arturo Evangelista told reporters the suspension is not the penalty for the case yet, as Liddawa will still undergo summary dismissal proceedings.
Preventive suspension, he explained, is sought against a respondent while the summary dismissal proceedings are ongoing if the offense is serious, if the evidence of guilt is strong or if the respondent has the tendency to harass witnesses vital to the case.
Liddawa’s lawyer, Noel Archival, said the recommendation reflects the acting Mandaue City police director’s “sublime ignorance of the law.”
‘Normal’
Liddawa was assigned to the Regional Service Company at the regional office a day after the Sept. 18 scuffle with the ABS-CBN television crew.
Archival, however, asked why the Mandaue police chief is recommending a charge of grave misconduct when the circumstances do not constitute such an offense.
Instead of boosting his field officers’ morale, the acting director is doing otherwise, Archival added.
For his part, ABS-CBN reporter Ramil Paican explained yesterday that he and his crew kept the raw footage of the squabble “for security reasons.”
In an interview aired over the local news program, Paican said that fighting back was a “normal reaction” from anyone who sees his companion getting punched.
In the first report aired Sept. 18, Paican said that Liddawa fell because he was drunk. The raw footage aired last Sept. 27, however, showed that after Liddawa hit cameraman Joel Noel and repeatedly challenged him, the news crew hit him back.
Internal rules
The recommendation to preventively suspend Liddawa for 45 days is still subject to review by the RIDMD and approval by the regional director of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7.
The airing of the complete footage of the ABS-CBN crew did not have a bearing on Calungsud’s recommendation however, as police investigators focused on the “breach of internal discipline” that Liddawa displayed that night.
Evangelista explained that the investigation was conducted with the MCPO acting as the nominal complainant. He clarified that ABS-CBN did not file a case against Liddawa yet.
Evangelista said that a police officer who violates the Revised Penal Code faces an administrative case for misconduct “notwithstanding the evidence.”
In Liddawa’s case, it is reckless imprudence resulting to damage to property and his drunkenness.
The video footage, Evangelista said, will only be used during the summary dismissal proceedings.
“The footage showed there was a breach of internal discipline. Whether he was beaten up, that’s a different matter. I will not touch on that,” Evangelista said.
Chief Supt. Ronald Roderos, acting PRO 7 director, told reporters the summary dismissal proceedings will determine if Liddawa is acquitted, suspended or dismissed from the PNP service. (MEA/With OCP & KNT)
