Albayalde: Cops ransacking houses may now be a 'culture' in Caloocan

National Capital Region Police Office chief Director Oscar Albayalde yesterday said they would want to find out if illegally entering residences has become a regular practice among Caloocan City policemen.

"Dapat po nating malaman na baka ito ay naging kultura na sa Caloocan," Albayalde said in an interview on radio dzBB of GMA News yesterday.

Albayalde said the 14 policemen involved in the illegal house raid had been placed under restrictive custody pending the Philippine National Police-Internal Affairs Service's investigation.

The policemen, led by Senior Inspector Warren Peralta, were caught in a CCTV camera forcibly entering and ransacking a civilian's house. The policemen, all in civilian clothes, allegedly took cash and personal belongings of the house owner.

Albayalde admitted during the interview that the incident involving Peralta's group triggered his order to relieve the entire Caloocan City police force from their posts.

Aside from the case of Peralta's group, Caloocan City policemen had also been accused of summarily executing teenagers Kian Loyd delos Santos and Carl Angelo Arnaiz.

Albayalde said removing the Caloocan City policemen from their posts would allow investigators to freely look into the three cases. He said that they will also try to find out if there were previous incidents similar to the case of Peralta's group.