Palace: Ebdane may get fired

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. might get the ax sooner than expected.

Malacañang floated the possibility that Ebdane may be relieved of his post following the embarrassing hostage-taking incident at the PNP headquarters yesterday where three policemen were killed and three others wounded during a three-hour standoff against a lone Abu Sayyaf gunman.

Deputy Presidential Spokesman Ricardo Saludo said a possible PNP revamp looms in the wake of the latest security foul-up in Camp Crame.

"We leave it to the President to make these decisions. We are here to convey her instructions," Saludo said.

"Any further actions will have to await the President’s decision and as you know, she is preoccupied in the Asean summit in Bali (Indonesia)."

This developed as President Arroyo called up Ebdane from Bali, asking for an update over the hostage-taking incident, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said.

"As soon as we got (the report), we learned on this about 20 minutes after, and she (Mrs. Arroyo) immediately called General Ebdane and afterwards (Interior and Local Governments) Secretary (Jose) Lina," Bunye told state-run Radyo ng Bayan in Manila.

In a bid to escape detention, Buyungan Bungkak, a suspected Abu Sayyaf bandit held for the bombing of a pubhouse that left several people including a US serviceman dead in Zamboanga City last year, reportedly grabbed an M-16 rifle from a guard he took hostage.

The police hostage was shot in the head while two officers who came to his aid were killed as a rescue team stormed the building in the compound inside Camp Crame where Bungkak was detained.

The jail shootout was another embarrassment for the government. Last July 14, confessed Indonesian Jemaah Islamiyah bomber Fathur Roman Al-Ghozi escaped from the same police compound, along with two other Abu Sayyaf suspects. Al-Ghozi remains at large.

The July 14 escape triggered calls from several sectors for a revamp in the PNP leadership.

The President, however, stood by the beleaguered Ebdane. Instead, she ordered the PNP chief to personally supervise the manhunt operations against the Indonesian fugitive who was last reported somewhere in central Mindanao.

Yesterday’s security foul-up also heightened security concerns ahead of a planned Oct. 18 visit to the country by US President George W. Bush, and added to investors’ worries about market stability.

Saludo announced that the police official in charge of the area where Bungkak was detained, was immediately relieved of his post after it was learned that the Abu Sayyaf suspect had left his cell without handcuffs.

PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group chief Director Eduardo Matillano ordered the relief of Superintendent Rosueto Ricaforte, chief of the CIDG-Anti-Organized Crime and Business Concerns Division (AOCBCD).

Matillano himself voluntarily took "an indefinite leave of absence to clear the air and dispel speculations" on interfering with the investigation, a CIDG spokesman said.

Saludo said Mrs. Arroyo has been informed by Lina and that two investigations are now under way, one by the PNP and the other to be conducted by the National Police Commission (Napolcom).

"Once these investigations are completed, they would recommend what needs to be done," Saludo said.

For now, Saludo said, Ebdane is under orders from Mrs. Arroyo to fast-track the completion of the new maximum security detention facility at Camp Crame. "And that is as far as we know to be the President’s instructions on him," he said.

The construction of the new detention facility was one of the recommendations made by a fact-finding commission investigating the escape of Al-Ghozi. - with Jose Rodel Clapano