Baguio City—The leadership of the Police Regional Office Cordillera (PROCOR) has dissolved the Regional Drug Enforcement Unit (RDEU) after two of its personnel were found to be possibly involved in the abduction of a civilian, whose beheaded remains were later found in a town in Benguet.
“I already dissolved it. We will first review and see if the lessons that should be learned by our people are appropriate,” said BGen. R’Win Pagkalinawan, regional director of the PROCOR.
Earlier, he vowed to cooperate with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in probing the killing and beheading of Harjan Lagman, 25, of Barangay Irisan here.
Video obtained by GMA News showed Lagman being forced into an SUV by five men wearing masks, with bystanders unable to stop the incident. A day later, his remains were found in a ravine in neighboring Tublay, Benguet.
Interviewed on Dobol B sa News TV, Pagkalinawan said the family of the victim prefers the NBI to handle the investigation. He said he would be very much willing to provide the pieces of evidence to the NBI.
He said that they were all surprised to learn that the involved personnel operated on their own without informing the office.
“I dissolved it because I don’t like what happened where the personnel operated on their own without telling their superior. That will only show that they are not being guided and they are making their own move,” Pagkalinawan said.
He said provinces have their drug enforcement units, which will do the function of enforcing the anti-illegal drugs law.
“All the other personnel have been ordered to return to their respective units,” the general said, adding the two policemen have been placed on restrictive custody pending the result of the investigation and determination of the case to be filed.
Pagkalinawan said they just got an order from the higher headquarters to subject DEU personnel to drug testing.
Police later learned that the headless remains were that of the abducted person.
An investigation by the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO), which included subjecting the video clip to forensics to make the faces of the persons clearer, allowed them to identify two of the abductors as personnel of the RDEU who are assigned at Baguio-DEU.
Identification of the three other persons in the abduction is still ongoing.
The general said the Internal Affairs Service is also probing the incident for administrative cases.
