Mixed reactions on Marcos appointment as Socsksargen CIDG director

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Members of the local media here are wary over the assignment of controversial police official Supt. Marvin Marcos as the new regional chief of the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) here.

Danilo Recla, president of Samahan ng mga Mamamahayag at Brodkaster, said local media should be vigilant in watching over the assignment of Marcos as PNP-CIDG chief for the Socsksargen region.

“We are concerned about the possible rampant violation of human rights in the region following the assignment of Marcos in the area,” Recla said.

But City Councilor Jeng Gacal, chairman of the peace and order committee, welcomed the assignment of Marcos in Region 12, saying that the controversial police officer could be of help in the government’s anti-drug campaign in the region.

Marcos, former regional chief of CIDG for Eastern Visayas, together with several other policemen, had been charged with murder for the killing of Albuera Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa inside the Leyte provincial jail last November.

Espinosa, who was tagged as a drug lord by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, was under detention at the detention facility in Baybay, Leyte, when CIDG operatives, led by Marcos, raided the jail which resulted in the killing of Espinosa and another inmate Raul Yap.

The PNP hierarchy ordered the suspension Marcos, but he was ordered reinstated of Duterte after the Department of Justice (DOJ) downgraded the charges from murder to homicide which allowed Marcos to post bail and released from detention.