Tom ‘behind’ case vs cops
Who could have hatched the complaint the National Bureau of Investigation-7 filed against three Carbon policemen in relation to four-yearold Bladen Skyler Abatayo’s death?
For Senior Supt. Royina Garma, director of Cebu City Police Office, the question was
a no-brainer.
She believes that Mayor Tomas Osmeña instigated the filing of the complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman, and the mayor’s slip was showing, so to speak.
“Obvious ba? From the very start, there’s already an intervention. Nung nagkaroon ng arraignment kay (Tejero councilman Jessielou) Cadungog, the mayor was there again. I was told by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group7,” Garma said in an ambush interview at a hospital where she conferred a medal on a wounded city cop yesterday.
The feisty CCPO director did not also hide her disappointment with the NBI-7, which filed complaints for falsification by public officer, dereliction of duty, obstruction of justice, and grave misconduct against Carbon police chief, Chief Insp. John Kareem Escober, PO1 Wilbert Perez, and PO1 Rey Van Dadula.
The complaint letter was submitted to the Ombudsman last August 28.
“Anticipated ko ‘yan na NBI will do their best to demoralize the PNP lalo na Cebu City police. I don’t know why. They are supposed to be our partners, but they are doing this to us so we will just face it,” Garma said.
“I’m waiting na dadating yung complaint sa mga police and we will help our police,” she added.
Osmeña, in a post to his Facebook page, expressed being “elated” with the NBI-7’s filing of charges.
The mayor’s post was a comment to a newspaper column about the need to have a police force independent from the mayor. In that post, Osmeña said it’s nice to have a police that is not under the mayor’s control because “he does not want to be responsible for the death of 4-year-old and to lie to cover it up.”
“They are far from ‘under my control,’ but at least the NBI is still trustworthy. It’s nice to know there are still some law enforcers out there willing to stand up for what’s right,” the post read.
Osmeña did not answer to Garma’s allegations, though. He had already announced that he would respond to questions about the police only on September 9, when his party would hold a thanksgiving Mass for several projects and programs that have been green-lighted.
VERSIONS OF TRUTH
Skyler, a preschooler, was hit by a stray bullet inside their house in Sitio Bato, Barangay Ermita in July. He did not make it to the hospital.
Interestingly, at about the same time, the three policemen were responding to an alarm of an ongoing drug-sniffing session in a shanty adjacent to the room where Skyler was playing.
NBI-7 findings showed that the bullet that killed Skyler came from Perez’ gun. Perez reportedly fell on a slippery part of the stairs at a house owned by a certain Elizabeth Abayan.
But police stood pat with their earlier pronouncement that the bullet that had claimed Skyler’s life came from one of the suspects who eluded arrest.
Police Regional Office-7 Director Chief Supt. Debold Sinas even said in a recent interview that he was ready to show proof to their claims.
“We stand firm, kung unsa may ebidensya sa NBI7, we will face them in court. Hopefully, we could already show proof nga dili tao nato ang nakapusil. Let the evidence speak. I will not comment, if naa sila’y ebidensya, tubagon lang namo sa court,” Sinas said.
Garma yesterday said that as law enforcers, the NBI should be police’s partner in solving crimes and have better coordination and information sharing.
“It’s not good. We are the same law enforcement agency. If they have problem, they should be talking together. We should have sat down,” she said.
The FREEMAN tried to reach Dominador Cimafranca, who has since stepped in as the operations-in-charge of NBI-7 after the reassignment of NBI-7 director Patricio Bernales Jr., but to no avail.
Cimafranca hails from Davao, the same place where Garma is a native of, but this doesn’t automatically mean improved relations between the two agencies, said the CCPO director. She commented, though, that Cimafranca has a strong professional ethics.
“Di porke’t taga Davao yun, magkasundo na. (But) I strongly believe na yung moral foundation niya sa work niya, conviction sa work niya, eh,
mataas,” she said.
TUMULAK CONCERNED
Meanwhile, City Councilor David Tumulak hopes that the transfer of Bernales and some NBI-7 agents to Northern Mindanao would not affect the ongoing investigation into cases handled by the bureau.
Tumulak, chairman of council’s committee on peace and order, believes that the transfer of Bernales does not have anything to do with the high-profile cases under the NBI-7’s portfolio, including Skyler’s case and the foiled “assassination” attempt on Cadungog.
Bernales was reassigned on the day NBI7 filed the charges against the three Carbon cops.
Tumulak was confident the change of command would not affect investigations, relying on the NBI’s strong record-keeping.
“Og naa lang kanunay ang mga records, ma-continue man na kay sila man ang mas maayo in terms of investigation. As long as naa ra ang mga records, ma-continue ra na kon kinsay puli as director,” he said.