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Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Police chief, 3 cops say stop order a vindication
By Ben O. Tesiorna
FORMER Davao City Police Office director Conrado Laza welcomed with great relief the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Court of Appeals stopping the preventive suspension issued by the Ombudsman on him and three precinct police chiefs.
"Now we can go back to work and earn salary with which to feed our respective families," Laza said.
The TRO is good for 60 days or two months. Within that time, Laza and his fellow police officers will fight it out and hope to convince the Ombudsman to drop the administrative cases against them.
Laza, now chief of directorial staff of the Police Regional Office 11, told reporters at the Grand Men Seng Hotel yesterday morning, that the TRO is a vindication from the accusations hurled against him and Chief Inspector Matthew Baccay, chief of the San Pedro police; Chief Inspector Vicente Danao Jr. of the Talomo police precinct; and Inspector Filmore Escobal of the Sta. Ana police.
The four high-raking police officers were accused of failing to stop several cases of summary executions or "salvaging" believed to be perpetrated by the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS) within their areas of jurisdiction.
"The TRO is a vindication on the accusations against us because the heart of our petition is for the suspension to be lifted because the elements needed for the suspension is not present. There is no strong evidence against us. Nabatikos na kami as if kami ang pinakamasamang tao dito sa mundo. This TRO has salvaged whatever is still to be salvaged on our reputation," Laza said.
In a Court of Appeals resolution dated July 4, a TRO was issued against preventive suspension order of the Ombudsman for 60 days.
"You are hereby enjoined to cease and desist from implementing the assailed preventive suspension order dated June 16, 2005 of the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for the Military and other Law Enforcement Officers in OMB-P-A-05-0563. If the preventive suspension order has been already implemented, the Ombudsman, its officials, deputies, agents and representatives and all other persons acting in its behalf are directed to immediately lift the preventive suspension imposed," the CA order stated.
The CA also required the Ombudsman to comment on the petitions of Laza, et al, saying that they were suspended "without strong evidence of guilt as the Ombudsman relied on raw statistics of alleged executions based on newspaper reports or on assumptions, suspicions and conjectures".
The four police officers were also directed to submit within 10 days their separate comments on the reports filed by the Special Task Force on the Alleged Summary Killings in Davao, which was the basis of the Ombudsman's suspension order against the four cops.
Laza said the officers were surprised by the suspension because the four members of the Ombudsman task force from Manila told him before some members of the media that the officers were not being investigated.
Laza assured the public that they are not shying away from their mandate to solve crimes and arrest the suspects.
Danao meanwhile said that with the TRO they are now more than eager to run after the criminals and solve the summary executions in their areas of responsibility.
"We are very glad that the TRO was issued because we are very eager to serve the community and it is also unfair to prevent us to work," Danao said.
He claimed that in his precinct, they have a 96% crime solution efficiency rate for the past three months alone. He said his men were somehow affected by the suspension order that was implemented just last Friday.
For the four suspended police officials it's back to work for now until such time that the Ombudsman has come out with the result of its investigation on the summary killings.
The officials are now hoping that the verdict would be favorable to them.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (July 6, 2005 issue)
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