Labra wants to thresh out CSU issue

Admitting there was a sort of "communication gap," Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Branch chief Paul Labra yesterday suggested a meeting with acting city police director Melvin Gayotin and outgoing Mobile Patrol Group chief Herman Lungayan following the killing of two policemen late Sunday.

The meeting is aimed at determining who was supposed to have supervision of the Crime Suppression Unit before it was placed directly under the Cebu City Police Operations Division on August 12.

This developed as Gayotin told The Freeman yesterday afternoon that effective tomorrow, Lungayan would be the new Carbon police station chief while Chief Insp. Arnel Banzon would take charge of the MPG.

Gayotin had earlier explained that the revamp had long been planned and that it had nothing to do with the death of PO2 Armando Juegos and PO2 Oliver Jamboy. Juegos and Jamboy are members of the CSU.

Gayotin said he is not speaking for Mayor Tomas Osmeña, who recommended for the immediate relief of Lungayan, saying that the revamp was to streamline the police force.

Labra's desire to meet with Lungayan and Gayotin stemmed from Lungayan's lamentation that Osmeña should not have bent his ire on him because of what happened to Juegos and Jamboy.

Lungayan had claimed that even when the CSU was still under him, they were taking orders from Labra.

But Labra denied giving orders to the CSU, saying that he is only limited to giving it information on suspected criminals in the city based on intelligence report.

Meanwhile, Osmeña said he was just trying to be objective over his comments that the two slain cops were lax when they responded to a domestic violence in barangay Lahug Sunday night.

The mayor said he knew there should be delicadeza when issuing adversarial statements against the dead "because we do not want to insult those that could no longer defend themselves," but that he cannot help but to see where the lapses lie.

The mayor added that lapses in the procedures adopted by the police in responding to alarms could be blamed on gross mismanagement from Camp Crame down to the lower ranks.

Nevertheless, the city would look into the incident to see if there were indeed lapses on the part of the policemen.

Meanwhile, the city chapter of Kiwanis Club International will take the lead in raising funds for the families of Juegos and Jamboy. - Ryan P. Borinaga and Cristina C. Birondo