FOR the Tudela town policemen to still focus on their job and not get affected by the political turmoil there, Senior Supt. Carmelo Valmoria instructed them to get instructions directly from him.
“To avoid any confusion, (any instruction) has to be cleared by me. Until the problem has been resolved, I don’t want my personnel on the ground to get confused,” said the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) director.
The Tudela leadership is currently rocked by the opposing claims of Rogelio Baquerfo and Demetrio Granada over the right to sit as town mayor.
While Baquerfo was declared winner in the May 2007 elections, a regional trial court ruled Granada the victor after a recount.
Granada ousted Baquerfo last June and assumed the post after the town council and the Association of Barangay Councils issued resolutions recognizing him (Grana-da) as the rightful mayor.
Baquerfo was also recently ordered suspended by the Sandiganbayan for a 2004 case.
However, the Department of Interior and Local Government has refused to recognize Granada because the court did not issue a writ of execution and because the case was forwarded to the Commission on Elections.
Granada has criticized the local police for a warning shot fired last July 24, when supporters of Granada and Baquerfo nearly clashed in front of the municipal building.
He also sent Valmoria a letter and complained against some Special Reaction Unit policemen, whom he did not identify, for allegedly being intoxicated that day.
Disciplined
In particular, he said, the SRU head in the town was allegedly always drunk.
“I will look into the allegation of Mr. Granada. I will also impose disciplinary action if there is a violation,” Valmoria said in response.
He, however, said it was the first time he received a drunkenness complaint against any SRU personnel, whom he described as “the most disciplined unit of the CPPO.”
He also said his men did not “overreact” when they fired a warning shot and positioned themselves around the police station when power was cut off last week.
“Let us remember that someone threw a grenade at the police station. Also, there was a power outage in the vicinity of the police station. We do not allow anybody to just attack the police station. So that was not overreacting. We did not make stories that there was a grenade explosion outside the police station,” he said.
He explained that the warning shot was fired to “preempt the imminent clash of the opposing camps.” (MEA)
