The Philippine National Police on Wednesday rejected allegations of cover-up in the case of 10 Laguna police officers who were charged with the recent death of a teenager. PNP chief Guillermo Eleazar said any wrongdoings by any policemen would not be tolerated. The filing of homicide charges against the accused shows no cover-up, Eleazar said.
It is never the PNP’s policy to intimidate or commit abuses especially against the poor as well as cover up wrongdoings among our ranks. We are aware of these allegations but we would also want to inform the public that over 80,000 police officers have been sanctioned for the past five years and these include 5,000 who were dismissed from the service over various cases of abuse of power),”Eleazar stressed. said in a statement.
He, however, noted that many police officers were killed or wounded while pursuing drug suspects in various operations.
Eleazar retireated that the PNP will continue to enforce a human rights based approach in its operations against criminals.
On Monday, the fact-finding Investigation task group of the Police Regional Office 4-A, led by Brig. Gen. Eliseo Cruz, filed a homicide complaint against 10 personnel of the Laguna Police Provincial Office (PPO) before the Biñan City Prosecutor’s Office over the death of 16-year-old Jhondie Helis in a June 16 police operation.
The charges filed against the 10 policemen, including the head of the team of operatives from the Laguna PPO Intelligence Branch Capt. Fernando Credo, took into account the complaint-affidavit of the teenager’s mother.
The police officers who opened fire and killed Helis and drug high-value target Antonio Dalit during the operation have also been identified based on the results of the ballistics examination and the cross-matching on the slugs recovered from the bodies of the victim
Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Wednesday said the investigation into the so-called March 7 “bloody massacre” in Southern Luzon provinces remains “a high priority”.
“The Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Rizal and Batangas provinces) incidents remain high in the priorities of the AO 35 committee,” Guevarra said, referring to the DOJ-led Administrative Order 35 Inter-Agency Committee on Extra-Legal Killings, Enforced Disappearances, Torture and Other Grave Violations of the Right of Life, Liberty and Security of Persons.
Guevarra stressed that he has requested the special investigating teams from the National Bureau of Investigation to submit an update of their probe.
At least nine persons died while six others were arrested when the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines conducted joint operations in serving search warrants against persons with suspected links to the communist terrorist groups in Calabarzon