5 Talisay cops relieved for ‘selfie’

CEBU CITY — The controversial Talisay City police station is again in hot water after five of its rookie policemen were caught taking a “selfie” during an anti-drug operation. Cebu provincial police chief, Sr. Supt. Manuel Abrugena, ordered the five policemen relieved starting Monday, while they were placed under investigation. Abrugena himself caught the policemen in the act of taking pictures of themselves in “happy faces” along with two drug personalities identified as Armando Unabia, 54, and Gerald Geraldizo, 42, who were arrested during the police operation. The Philippine News Agency learned that the operation was conducted in Sitio Candaya, Barangay Linao in Talisay last week. The police seized more than 70 plastic packets of crystalline substance believed to be shabu during the operation. Abrugena said it is the police’s standard operating procedure not to reveal the identities of suspects during an operation. Last September, Central Visayas’ Police Regional Office Director, Chief Supt. Debold Sinas, ordered the relief of the entire Talisay police force following reports that some of the officers were coddling drug personalities. Sinas ordered the personnel from the Regional Mobile Force Battalion in Central Visayas (RMFB), an elite force of the Philippine National Police (PNP), to take over the station. Only Talisay police chief, Supt. Marlu Conag, was spared by the order of Sinas. (PNA)