BAGUIO CITY—The City Council has decided to invite all the involved parties in the celebrated traffic incident at the city’s public market among police officers to a discussion that aims to clear the air and help the council deal with three pending resolutions on the issue.
The decision to invite SPO3 Alberto Tadeo, Senior Superintendent Gregorio Lim, Lim’s aides and security escorts, and regional police officials to the discussion would give city councilors the real picture of the traffic incident at Baguio’s public market, which has hogged headlines in this city since Christmastime.
Tadeo has been reassigned to Apayao province by Lim, the Cordillera police deputy regional director for administration, after the longtime Baguio traffic officer accosted a vehicle driven by Lim’s men for violating the city’s number-coding traffic scheme.
Going with public and social media sentiments that favored the traffic cop, the council has sided with Tadeo. Councilor Edgar M. Avila has filed a resolution condemning the “unceremonious transfer” of Tadeo and declaring Lim as persona non grata in Baguio “for grave abuse of power and authority.”
A second resolution, authored by Councilor Leandro B. Yangot Jr., invited all concerned parties to shed light on the traffic incident, and the third proposal by Vice Mayor Edison R. Bilog seeks the reinstatement of Tadeo to the Baguio City Police Office while authorities are still investigating the case.
The council reminded Lim that his failure to appear before its regular session on Monday, Jan. 16, will mean a waiver of his right to air his side on the matter, and the legislative body “will be constrained to pursue the passage of the resolution declaring him persona non grata.”
The council also required Lim to submit a written comment on the proposed resolution declaring him persona non grata “that will serve as an added document for the legislators to assess whether there is merit to his response.”
The discussion “is part of the due process” to be accorded the policemen “and to merit suggestions and recommendations on how to improve the implementation of the city’s traffic rules and regulations” regardless of what settlement the concerned parties would reach in a meeting to be scheduled.
Reports say Tadeo was reassigned to Apayao because of alleged breach of internal police discipline, for issuing side comments when he apprehended Lim’s driver and security escort for obvious violation of the city’s number coding scheme.
However, Tadeo did not issue the driver the necessary traffic citation ticket since the latter supposedly name-dropped Lim as the owner of the vehicle.
Still, the councilors think Tadeo’s transfer to Apayao “was obviously grave and unfair,” noting that the policeman would be “deprived of the chance to face his detractors during the conduct of the hearings on the case, due to the distance of his assignment (in Apayao), which is over 400 kilometers away from Baguio.”
