SENIOR Superintendent Rodolfo Castil Jr., director of Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Nocppo), will have a dialogue with the mine workers and executives of the Maricalum Mining Corporation (MMC) in Sipalay City, Negros Occidental, within the week.
Castil told SunStar Bacolod on March 11 that he will visit the site, along with a legal officer, to check the actual situation in the area.
"We (police officers) do not want to look like we're biased in the conduct of investigation so we would want to hear them out also," Castil said.
He said he is bringing a legal officer to make the assessment and clarifications about the issue.
On March 5, agents of National Bureau of Investigation-Manila, along with its local offices and the Philippine Army, swooped down the facility by virtue of a search warrant issued by a Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge from Quezon City for illegal possession of firearms against a certain Noli Micabel and/or occupants of Warehouse 3-Port Area of the facility.
The raid resulted in the recovery of 12 firearms.
However, National Mines and Allied Workers Union (Namawu) coordinating lawyer Jovim Entila questioned the search at the facility after the 21 security guards assigned there were immediately replaced a day after the raid.
He said there was no single name of the arrested security guards that were included in the search warrant.
Entila said Namawu members took possession of the said property after they won the case following the closure of the said mining company years ago.
Last week, a task group was created to focus on probing the Maricalum issue.
Castil said they will try to find out the real scenario on the site.