By Jorge Pablo Eluardo, Mandaue City
POLICE Brig. Gen. Debold Sinas must be ashamed to accept his new role—director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).
Leaving unsolved killings in Central Visayas is an indelible taint in his career in the Philippine National Police.
Some of the high-profile cases that happened under his watch include the murders of Ronda Mayor Mariano “Nonie” Blanco III, former Cebu City assistant prosecutor Mary Ann Castro and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency operatives Baby “Earl” Rallos and Von Rian Tecson.
Several San Fernando, Cebu officials were also murdered by unknown assassins.
Some of the active police officers who were killed under Sinas’ watch were Jonathan Tilos, Melchizedek Batomalaque, and Delfin Bontuyan.
Most of these murder cases remain unsolved until today.
An over-matched Adonis Dumpit was killed during a drug bust initiated by the PRO 7 and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 operatives in Tagbilaran City, Bohol in June 2018.
On the following month, four-year-old Skyler Abatayo was killed during a drug bust in Barangay Ermita, Cebu City. Sinas and then Cebu City Police Office director Royina Garma defended the personnel of Carbon Police Station who carried out the anti-narcotics operation, saying it was a stray bullet from a drug personality’s gun that killed the boy.
However, the investigators from the NBI’s central office found out that the stray bullet came from one of the police officers. The NBI charged three policemen.
Five men were massacred in Barangay Malubog, Cebu City on Oct. 4, 2018. Two persons who survived the incident told reporters that the police carried out the crime, but this was denied by Sinas.
One of the victims was a call center agent who earned his extra income as a motorcycle-for-hire driver.
A few days later, Sinas offered an alibi to reporters: An organized crime group may have had a hand in the Malubog massacre.
Were the PRO 7 investigators able to unmask the members and the mastermind of that organized crime group? Nada.
In Negros Oriental, Sinas initiated the counter-insurgency Oplan Sauron that saw deaths of suspected rebels and alleged holders of unlicensed firearms.
Sinas’s stint as the PRO 7 director could be described as a reign of terror.
SunStar Cebu’s report states: “Under Sinas’ leadership from June 1, 2018 to Oct. 9, 2019, the PRO 7 was able to arrest 14,223 drug personalities, including 313 high-value targets, in 9,966 anti-drug operations. A total of 136 persons were killed during police operations in the same period.”
Sinas has blood in his hands.