THE Police Regional Office (PRO1) in Ilocos Region on Wednesday, May 30, said no policemen were assigned as security escorts to Eufranio Eriguel, a former La Union congressman who was killed on the eve of the 2018 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections.
Chief Superintendent Romulo Sapitula, PRO1 director, said Eriguel was not entitled to any security escort because he was on President Rodrigo Duterte's list of narco-politicians, among others.
"In response to the privilege speech of Congresswoman Sandra Eriguel on May 28, 2018, at the House of the Representatives wherein she blamed the police particularly the PRO1 leadership as responsible for the recall of the police personnel detailed as their protective security, I would like to emphasize that the PNP Region 1 never recalled security escort of the late Eriguel," said PRO1 director Chief Superintendent Romulo Sapitula.
"The fact that we never detail police personnel as his protective security because he was not entitled to it," he added.
Sapitula, however, admitted recalling the police escorts of Representative Sandra Eriguel and Mayor Stefanie Ann Eriguel.
He said the police escorts were assigned to the Eriguels "as a matter of courtesy and not a policy."
It should be the Police Security Protection Group that is in the position to provide security escorts upon request.
"While we share with the sentiments of the Eriguel family, and as regional director of the Region 1 police, we are also mandated to implement any legal orders to that effect, where the security maybe recalled or terminated anytime or even before the expiration of the detail when the demands of the PNP so requires which holds true during the election period," he added.
"During our series of conferences with the Comelec and AFP in Region 1, we discovered that we lack about a thousand personnel to man the voting places and the detail of these security personnel to election duties is one of the noblest tasks which is to secure the rights of the people to suffrage," he added.
Sapitula said the Special Investigation Task Group Eriguel is continuously conducting an investigation particularly on the reported lack of police personnel in the area where the victim was killed.
Eriguel was shot dead on May 13, while he was making a speech at the barangay’s meeting de avance. His two body guards and driver were also killed in the incident.
Police arrested one of the alleged suspects identified as Felizardo Villanueva, a candidate in the just concluded barangay elections.
PNP chief Oscar Albayalde said the killing may have been politically motivated since Eriguel endorsed Villanueva’s rival candidate. (SunStar Philippines)