Dismissed cop may seek legal help from City Hall

The Talamban policeman, who the Ombudsman for the Military had ordered dismissed from service last Tuesday, could still file a motion for reconsideration and should see first if the city government could provide legal assistance to him.

City Police acting director Melvin Gayotin yesterday said he would still refer the case of PO3 Paquito Monterroyo to City Hall if the dismissed policeman could avail of free legal assistance, as enjoyed by other policemen getting into trouble in their line of duty.

Monterroyo had earlier claimed the incident causing his dismissal fell under his tour of duty, so Gayotin said the only advice he could give the policeman at this time is to file at the Ombudsman for the Military a motion for reconsideration of its decision.

Gayotin however said since yesterday his office could not implement the dismissal of Monterroyo because he had not received yet a copy of the order, which might have been sent directly to the deputy regional director for administration of the Police Regional Office. The City Police will still wait for the go-signal from PRO-7. Monterroyo's immediate superior Talamban Police head C/Insp. Marlou Martinez yesterday said Monterroyo, last Tuesday evening, already knew about the Ombudsman's decision to dismiss him from service.

Martinez said Monterroyo was on duty conducting surveillance in another barangay at the time when he got the news. He said Monterroyo apparently got dejected about it so he granted the latter's request to cut short his duty and go home to take a respite. The Ombudsman had ordered Monterroyo dismissed from service after it found him guilty of grave misconduct for receiving money from a suspected drug pusher during an entrapment operation of the National Bureau of Investigation on August 12, 2003.

The matter started when the suspect Meno Disomundeg claimed that eight people, who introduced themselves as members of the Criminal Intelligence and Detection Group, blocked his van as he was about to enter the garage of his house in Lapu-Lapu City.

Disomundeg alleged that the group demanded money from him, threatening to plant on him 200 grams of shabu if he refused. This forced him to give them P18,000 and 3,000 yen, he said.

But three days after, a policeman called him up and demanded P300,000 in cash. He said he tried to haggle and the deal was lowered to P200,000. Disomundeg claimed the policeman was Monterroyo. Disomundeg then sought the help of the NBI resulting to an entrapment operation in front of a shopping mall in Mactan. Monterroyo was eventually caught there allegedly receiving the demanded money from Disomundeg.