PHILIPPINE National Police (PNP) Chief Oscar Albayalde said on Thursday, May 2, that he has ordered the relief of 18 intelligence operatives from the Cebu Provincial Police Office who took part in the hot pursuit operations that led to the killing of Police Corporal Feliciano Yballe Jr.
“Yes I did (order the relief),” Albayalde told Sunstar.
“That included the officer who led the operations,” he added.
Albayalde said he ordered Central Visayas Police Regional Director Debold Sinas to relieve the 18 personnel to give way to an impartial investigation on the incident.
Yballe was killed inside his house in Sudlon 1, Cebu City before dawn Wednesday, May 1, after allegedly engaging personnel of the Cebu Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB) in a gunfight.
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The 18 intelligence operatives conducted hot pursuit operations against the killer of Police Master Sergeant Junard Cinco.
Cinco was killed by an unidentified man in Toledo City on Tuesday, April 30.
Sinas, who had sent tracker teams after the killer, denied that Yballe was a suspect in the killing of Cinco. (SunStar Philippines)