Negros town top cop relieved

BACOLOD CITY - The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Nocppo) has ordered the relief of Lt. John Paul Tabujara as officer-in-charge of E.B. Magalona Municipal Police Station effective May 15, 2021.

Lt. Abegael Donasco, Nocppo deputy information officer, said that Tabujara’s relief came a er lawyer Joseph Celis, director of the National Police Commission (Napolcom)-Western Visayas, expressed his disappointment to the personnel of the police station for allegedly not performing their duties.

Celis posted on his Facebook account that there was no desk officer and sentinel when he made a surprise visit at the police station around 11 p.m. on May 14, 2021.

He also said that he didn’t expect that the police chief and his deputy police chief were not around.

Celis said that it took five minutes for one policeman to wake up, while the other three were still fast asleep. There was no official duty detail order issued, he added.

“They woke up when I was already waiting in the premises of the station wearing civilian clothes, then dressed up with their uniforms, while others are absent abandoning their posts,” he said, stressing that they were literally not performing their duties.

Aside from that, Celis also cited other observations like the filthy premises of the station, and that the old unserviceable police vehicle blocks the other passage way and the gates are just open.

The smell of the station is stingy with pee, and the premises is dirty, he said.

With this, Tabujara was transferred to the Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit (PHAU)attheNocppoheadquarters here, while his post was assumed by Police Capt. Eric Doronilla, deputy chief of the Provincial Operations Management Unit at the headquarters.

Donasco said the four policemen, who were initially on duty at that time, was directed to make a written explanation about what happened, including their reasons.