SUNSTAR CEBU’S RAZEL CUIZON SOUGHT THE REACTION OF CEBU CITY MAYOR TOMAS OSMEÑA ON MAY 26, 2017

TRO: They twist what I say. I said, yeah, hunt them down. You know why? Because the peace and order was getting so bad and policemen just sit down in the precinct.

What do they do in sitting down in the precinct? They don't respond to calls and I don't want them sitting down in the precinct. Go out, look for them. SunStar: Your directive before was just to hunt? TRO: Yes.

SunStar: Was there really a hunter team formed?

TRO: When they go out and they look, they screen and they go to different areas. I don’t want to call that a team. That's their job. They have to patrol and penetrate because we had a police force that was laidback.

SunStar: So their task to hunt down criminals was just part of law enforcement?

TRO: Yes. But there's no even such thing as hunter team, Dirty Harry and whatever. We're just aggressive when it comes to criminals. One of the reasons is that our policemen don't want to go after the criminals because when they end up shooting the criminal and they will be investigated and they have to pay for their lawyers. So they asked themselves, I've been here long a time in the police department and I don't want be burdened towards the end of my career and have all of these cases and that's what happened to (SPO1 Adonis) Dumpit.

So I said, okay, as long as they're shooting and I see that's it's done according to the procedure, they get P50,000.

With P50,000 they can already hire a lawyer.

SunStar: Are you calling it a reward system?

TRO: For some, it’s a reward system, but it's a matter of interpretation. I don't tell them to kill somebody and I'll give them a reward.