THE Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 director welcomed any investigation on the death of a police officer allegedly tied to narcotics, saying they have nothing to hide.
Chief Supt. Debold Sinas said the Commission on Human Rights 7 has to right to conduct an inquiry on the drug bust that targeted Senior Insp. Raymond Hortezuela.
“All I can say to you is that the operation was legitimate. There was a basis,” Sinas told reporters yesterday.
Hortezuela was shot by operatives from the Counter-Intelligence Task Force and PRO 7 Regional Intelligence Division after he allegedly attempted to shoot them during the drug bust in Barangay Tipolo, Mandaue City last Sunday night.
The 35-year-old police officer, who was assigned in Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office, was reportedly a protector of slain Central Visayas drug lord Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz. Hortezuela had been listed in the watch list of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency 7.
His family is demanding justice, saying they did not believe that Hortezuela had been involved in any illegal activity.
Sinas said he understood the family. But Hortezuela’s kin, he added, cannot receive full benefits from the Philippine National Police, except for the accumulated leaves he did not avail himself of. (KAL)