THE chief of Siaton Municipal Police Station in Negros Oriental was relieved from his post last week after a cellphone video surfaced showing him forcing a man to listen to the sound of a motorcycle.
Senior Superintendent Henry Biñas, acting director of Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office (Norppo), confirmed to SunStar Bacolod on Thursday the relief of Chief Inspector Varie Villanobos.
He was replaced by the station’s deputy chief.
Villanobos, also a former chief of Candoni Municipal Police Station in Negros Occidental, was transferred to Biñas’s office at the Norppo headquarters in Sibulan town.
Biñas said he ordered Villanobos’s relief after he saw the cellphone video shared to him by another policeman.
He added that Villanobos responded to a complaint about the noise coming from the motorcycle.
When he arrived, Villanobos reprimanded the owner of the motorcycle, and forced him to put his ears closely to the muffler.
The incident reportedly happened in January.
The Investigation Branch of Norppo will evaluate Villanobos’s offense to determine if he committed a simple or grave misconduct, Biñas said.
Biñas said Villanobos already verbally explained the incident to him.
I want him to submit a written explanation, he added.
Biñas said they are still trying to locate the man in the video.
Villanobos said he did not force the man to put his ears closely to the muffler.
Instead, he told him to just listen to its sound for him to determine its loudness that is causing disturbance to the residents.
Villanobos said the man, a resident of La Carlota City in Negros Occidental, was believed to be under the influence of intoxicating liquor and was arrested for alarm and scandal.
He added that a driver of a delivery van first complained to police about the man, who was tailing them from Dumaguete City to Bayawan City.
Another complainant reported the same man for causing disturbance with the noise coming from his motorcycle.
The man was charged for alarm and scandal, unjust vexation and resistance, and disobedience to person in authority, but was released after he posted bail, Villanobos said.
Villanobos said he is willing to undergo investigation, adding that he did not do anything wrong and was just doing his job.