BAGUIO CITY—Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan wants ranking officers of the Police Regional Office in the Cordillera to face each other and see who’s telling the truth in the traffic incident that led to the pending controversial transfer of a longtime Baguio traffic policeman to Apayao province.
Domogan wants regional police director Chief Supt. Elmo Francis Sarona, deputy regional director for administration Sr. Supt. Gregorio Lim, and Lim’s security escort to face SPO3 Alberto C. Tadeo—whom Lim has ordered transferred to Apayao—before the City Council resumes its session on Jan. 9.
Tadeo had apprehended a vehicle registered to Lim, and driven by Lim’s security sector, for violating Baguio’s number-coding traffic scheme last December. Days later, Tadeo was surprised that he was being reassigned to Apayao, a transfer critics of Lim have described as unceremonious.
The mayor wants these police officers to meet in his presence “to ferret out the truth of the matter” and “spare the Philippine National Police of the bad image created” by the apparent abuse of power of Lim and his driver-escorts by flouting Baguio’s traffic laws.
“We do not want this matter to get out of control because of the insistence of PRO-COR officials that they are not within [Baguio’s] jurisdiction,” Domogan stressed. “We do not adhere to such argument because we believe we are all in government and we have to peacefully settle issues that crop up in the exercise of our respective duties and responsibilities.”
The mayor said he wants to put an end to the brewing issue that earned the ire of netizens, who expressed overwhelming support to Tadeo and denounced as a “cowardly act and abuse of power and authority” by Lim, who reportedly instigated Tadeo’s relief and transfer without due process.
Domogan admitted he cannot control the City Council once it decides to pass a resolution declaring Lim as persona non grata in Baguio, citing the independence of the executive department from the legislative branch.
“Thus, the need for all parties to come out with a possible solution, before the worst-case scenario will happen that will jeopardize Lim’s career as a future general,” he added.
Pending the face-to-face meeting, Domogan said it is prudent for Sarona and Lim to defer the transfer order and allow all parties to be present, and for them to tell the truth on what really transpired during the incident “so that Lim will not only rely on the statements of his driver as if it is the gospel truth in the said case.”
Domogan expressed his disappointment over the “evasive attitude” of the ranking regional police officials to his earlier request for a dialogue on the matter. He noted that the penalty imposed on Tadeo for doing his job “was considered unfair and grave” compared to the reprieve granted to Lim’s driver, “who should have been the one penalized for violating the city’s number coding scheme.”
Instead of lifting the morale of the lower-ranked police officers for doing their jobs, Lim’s action of relieving and transferring Tadeo to Apayao demoralized the city’s traffic enforcers, Domogan said. They now fear they will also suffer the same fate once they apprehend vehicles of ranking police officials who violate traffic rules and regulations in Baguio, he added.