Pasay cops paid P250,000 to family of slain hostage?

The Pasay City policemen who were involved in the botched rescue attempt that resulted in the death of four-year-old hostage victim Dexter Balala allegedly paid his parents P250,000 in "blood money."

A ranking police official, who requested anonymity, confirmed that the policemen, led by relieved Pasay City police chief Superintendent Eduardo de la Cerna, collectively raised the money for the boy’s impoverished parents Darius and Salvacion Balala.

The couple on Monday submitted an affidavit of desistance to the three-member panel of prosecutors investigating the incident and studying if there is probable cause to charge the policemen with gross negligence resulting in homicide.

Despite the withdrawal of the charges, however, Metro Manila police chief Deputy Director General Edgar Aglipay approved the recommendation of the police Internal Affairs Service (IAS) to dismiss De la Cerna and seven other policemen involved in the incident.

Aglipay ordered Senior Superintendent Apolinar Albajera, personnel director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), to implement the IAS recommendation.

Aside from De la Cerna, the IAS recommended the dismissal of Police Officers 3 Marco Duka, Rodolfo Soquina Jr., Ashley Gamulo and Leoncio Muñoz, PO2s Alfredo Villa and Joseph Gabe and PO1 Gregorio Mendoza Jr.

The recommendation to dismiss the eight policemen was contained in the report of Senior Superintendent Romulo Adduru, director of the NCRPO-IAS.

After the requisite hearing, the IAS found De la Cerna guilty of serious neglect of duty. Duka, Soquina, Gamulo, Mendoza, Villa and Muñoz were also found guilty of gross misconduct.

Gabe, the police station radio operator at the time of the incident, was found guilty of serious neglect of duty when he failed to inform other Pasay City police chiefs and the Southern Police District (SPD) headquarters of the ongoing hostage situation.

The NCRPO-IAS, however, cleared 14 other policemen after failing to establish sufficient evidence against them.

They were Chief Inspector Reynaldo Baral, Inspectors Editha Altera and Aquilino Almanza, PO3 Jonard Castro, PO2s Renato Llano, Raymundo Sabino, Florante Nobleza and Roberto Gonzales and PO1s Jay Martinez, Ronald Garcia, Domingo Landong, Christopher Torres, Andito Guardian and Lumuel Galang.

However, the IAS recommended that the 14 exonerated policemen undergo a 20-day police responder’s course at the Subic Freeport.

The incident stemmed from the hostage situation that occurred around dawn of May 31 when drug-crazed Diomedes Talvo seized Balala and held him hostage for about three hours at the Philtranco bus terminal in Malibay, Pasay City.

The incident was recorded on video by television news reporters and sparked a furor over the police’s supposed incompetence to deal with hostage situations.

Apparently desperate and before television cameras, Talvo stabbed Balala 13 times. Talvo was later shot down by the police.

Several of the stab wounds are considered fatal but the boy also sustained five gunshot wounds from the policemen who shot down Talvo. One of the five gunshot wounds pierced Balala’s heart.