Thursday, June 05, 2008 Wenceslao: Gingoyon, Oppus By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
GOOD that Police Regional Office 7 Director Ronald Roderos has decided to turn over to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group the investigation into the killing of Priscillano Gingoyon Jr., a fireman assigned to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. The Lapu-Lapu City police obviously failed expectations in their investigation.
It was awkward for the Lapu-Lapu police to question Gingoyon’s integrity while at the same time investigate his killing. This is apparent in their handling of Romulo Soreño, accused of driving the getaway vehicle used by the alleged gunman, Michael Baclohan. Soreño denied the accusation and linked Gingoyon to the illegal drug trade.
Lapu-Lapu City Police Chief Louie Oppus even said Soreño is important in their effort to rid the city of the illegal drugs menace. That immediately put him in a dilemma: hold on to Soreño as an asset in the anti-drug campaign or let go of him so justice for Gingoyon will be served. Of course, the first option is increasingly out of the question.
To be fair with Oppus and the Lapu-Lapu police, it is possible they stumbled on something that was not flattering to Gingoyon and were just too eager to pursue it. The problem was that their other task was to get to the bottom of his murder. In fact, that was the first task and probing Gingoyon’s integrity only peripheral or at best secondary.
What compounded the problem for them was PDEA Director General Dionisio Santiago’s unearthing of Gingoyon’s previous feud with some Lapu-Lapu cops. Was this the reason the Lapu-Lapu police zeroed in on Gingoyon instead of on his killers? I would like to grant the policemen the benefit of the doubt. But the suspicion is logical.
With the investigation on Gingoyon’s murder off their backs, the Lapu-Lapu police are freed of the dilemma they were into. That does not mean they should not pursue whatever leads that Soreño may have given them. The fight against illegal drugs is one test for Oppus and his policemen whose integrity has now been questioned.
I was one of Oppus’ admirers in his early years as Lapu-Lapu police chief. Since then, however, the crime situation in the city has gone bad and accusations of his being a man of Mayor Arturo Radaza have tainted his image. But he still can redeem himself if he curtails the activity of criminal elements in the city and cleanse the Lapu-Lapu police of scalawags, if there are any. As for Gingoyon, he is dead. And that's all there is to it.
