Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Bicol police chief orders no whitewash on probe of misencounter in Legazpi village

From the Philippine News Agency (May 20): Bicol police chief orders no whitewash on probe of misencounter in Legazpi village

Chief Supt. Victor Deona, Philippine National Police (PNP) Bicol regional director, on Wednesday ordered a full investigation on the reported misencounter on Tuesday morning between PNP members and a squad of Philippine Army soldiers that killed a police officer and wounded another cop in Sitio (sub-village) San Jose, Barangay (village) Maslog here.

Deona said he had ordered a no-whitewash investigation of the incident, saying “I gave Sr. Supt. Marlo Meneses, Albay provincial director, 72 hours to investigate whether indeed there was a misencounter and recommend appropriate actions so that no similar incident would happen in the future.”

In a phone interview, Deona assured that the probe would be transparent, as the investigating team has already started gathering pieces of evidence in the encounter site and testimonies from policemen patrolling the area.

The investigation will also determine if there were operational lapses committed, specifically, if there were “coordination” protocols violated.

Quoting initial scene of the crime operatives (SOCO) report, Deona said operatives have recovered an M16 rifle, cell phones, wristwatch, empty bullet shells and slugs at the clash scene, which is about 200 meters away from the barangay road.

Meneses said in a text message that two teams from the Albay Public Safety Command (PPSC) were on security operations after receiving intelligence report that an NPA leader would visit a relative in the village, which was at that time celebrating its fiesta.

He said the teams were also responding to reports about the presence of armed group in the area.

Army Lt. Col. Perfecto Penaredondo, commanding officer of the 2nd Infantry Battalion, said in a text message that “as of now, we are investigating elements of our unit who figured in a clash at almost the same vicinity in Barangay Maslog yesterday.”

He said his squad of Army soldiers responded to an earlier tip about NPA presence in the area, after checking with the City Police Action Center in Barangay Taysan, a neighboring upland village in the southern part of the city.

Penaredondo further said investigation is also being conducted by his command to see if there are any possible lapses.

He said the firearms used by his men have been collected for ballistic examination to determine if these were the ones that hit the PNP men or the bullets were from the NPA rebels.

The alleged misencounter was reported by a press statement issued on Tuesday by the New People’s Army (NPA) Santos Binamira Command, saying that no members of their group were operating in that area when the incident occurred.

The Santos-Binamira command claimed that the incident was a misencounter as the police were engaged in a gunbattle with a group of Army soldiers who were also in the same area.

The engagement, which lasted for 45 minutes, led to the killing of PO3 Rene Balaguer and the wounding of PO2 Ronald Bondad, both members of the 16-man Albay PPSC team.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=763651

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