Friday, November 30, 2007 Maximum penalty awaits erring cop
POLICE Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Ronald Roderos promised to “personally” look into the administrative case of PO2 Jaime dela Cruz, saying he wants this to serve as a warning to other erring personnel.
“I want to impose the maximum penalty on him because of this,” Roderos said.
Aside from his recent illegal possession of firearm charge and the serious illegal detention charge, dela Cruz is facing cases for arbitrary detention, robbery, child abuse and violations of the anti-drugs law.
Roderos said he has yet to check if dela Cruz is convicted of the anti-drugs violation, saying he was out on bail for his previous cases.
At City Hall, Mayor Tomas Osmeña lauded Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Chief Patrocinio Comendador for admitting there are policemen involved in extortion activities.
Osmeña, though, will not pressure Comendador into identifying the three policemen. He will just wait for the police to finish their investigation on the alleged activities.
While the City Government is helping to improve the image of the police department and bring back the people’s trust in it, Osmeña said it should also expose illegal activities of the police.
“Let’s not be artificial about it also. It’s very unusual for someone up there to say that we found four bad eggs. And that’s good. It will improve the image of the police because it shows he is sincere in cleaning the ranks,” the mayor said of Comendador.
“Let’s try to encourage him rather than make him prematurely identify the policemen involved. At least he found four of them, it’s good to go on the offensive,” he added. The Regional Investigation and Detective Management Division has been tasked to handle the administrative complaint against dela Cruz.
Earlier, Comendador said they were looking into three other police officers involved in similar activities with dela Cruz.
He did not name them but said they were not from the CCPO and that they victimized suspected drug personalities in the province.
RIDMD Deputy Chief Melvin Gayotin said they have around 20 personalities being monitored for allegedly being involved in such activities.
He said this list is relatively short compared with other regions.
Those in the list have previous cases pending and have complaints lodged against them.
They are monitoring their movements, but Gayotin said it is easier to kick them out of the organization if there are complainants who will come out against them.
He admitted that most of those in the watch list were ranked PO3 and below. (MEA/LCR)
