Probers clear police raiding team of overkill in Iloilo capitol siege

Despite video footage aired on national television showing policemen pointing guns at civilians inside the Iloilo capitol last Wednesday, the Philippine National Police (PNP) probe team cleared the police team of allegations of "overkill" by presenting their own footage showing the operatives’ reasonable or appropriate response during clearing operations to evict dismissed Iloilo Gov. Niel Tupas and Provincial Board Members Domingo Oso and Cecilia Capadosa.

The findings of the PNP probe team under Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) chief Director Eduard Doromal were a marked contrast to the admission of Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno that "there were very disturbing footage of the clearing operations."

Puno instructed PNP chief Director General Oscar Calderon to look into the reported gun-pointing incident during the clearing operations in an effort to evict Tupas, who was dismissed from his post by the Office of the Ombudsman over allegations of graft.

After the siege and the breaking of glass panels in the capitol building, Tupas managed to secure a temporary restraining order, blocking his physical removal from office.

In a report to Calderon, the PNP probers reported that they viewed video footage that showed the police had observed standard operating procedures in trying to disperse and break through the crowd that had blocked their entry into the capitol building.

"PNP personnel did not point guns at Tupas’ son and daughter but were merely asking them to sit down," the report said.

"While everybody had complied with the order, one of their companions stood up, prompting one of the lawmen to respond in accordance with the police operational procedures," it said.

The investigators said it was Tupas’ supporters led by his son, Iloilo Provincial Board Member Niel Tupas Jr., who initiated the scuffle that eventually prompted the Civil Disturbance Management (CDM) group to react accordingly to the situation.

"Footage also showed Tupas’ camp sealed the entry and exit points of the provincial capitol, hence trapping numerous civilians inside who had wanted to leave when the police started moving to enter the building," said the report.

"Fearful of stampede that could severely hurt or even kill many of these trapped civilians, members of the Iloilo Regional Mobile Group team had no recourse but to break glass panels to provide a safe passageway for them," the report said.

Reports had it that Tupas’ supporters in the capitol building included provincial jail guards and blue guards armed with long firearms as well as members of left-leaning and militant organizations like Bayan Muna, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and Gabriela.

"The presence of these armed Tupas supporters had been documented by police from the affidavits of several witnesses who were trapped inside the building," the report noted.

The team also gave weight to documents showing that Tupas’ son was in possession of nine firearms, including assault rifles with expired licenses.

The report added that members of the riot management group and CDM followed "to the letter" the instructions given to them during a thorough assessment of the situation that was undertaken prior to the assault to prevent any further deterioration of the peace and order situation in Iloilo.

"The responding team had taken into account that the capitol is a 2,248 square meet, six-storey building with 37 offices that usually need more than a 100 highly trained Special Weapons and Tactics personnel to secure. This meant that the 65 RMG members deployed to enter the building were actually not enough in the face of such situation," the report added.

The report pointed out that "the PNP contingent of some 200 combined elements of CDM and RMG was the smallest possible force deployed to the capitol, where they were clearly outnumbered by about a 1,000 supporters of the governor, a significant number of whom were presumed to be armed."

In Iloilo City, a police fact-finding team recommended that the police officials and commandos who stormed the Iloilo capitol should be commended.

Doromal said that he will recommend the commendation of the 300 or so police personnel deployed to the Iloilo capitol building last week to implement the dismissal order.

"The personnel of PRO6 (Police Regional Office 6) should be commended," Doromal said here yesterday.

During a multi-sectoral dialogue on the capitol siege yesterday, the fact-finding body showed a five-minute presentation of police video footage taken during the operation showing that there were no major injuries, no shots fired and only minimal damage while order was restored.

"We will recommend that they will be no more further investigation because there was no infraction of operational guidelines," he said. "Had we discovered that there was an infraction, then we would have recommended an investigation."

Heavily-armed members of the 6th Regional Mobile Group were deployed because they could not be expected to be partisan, Doromal said: "They’re from Negros Occidental, they don’t know anybody from Iloilo so they can be relied upon to carry out their orders objectively." — With Ronilo Pamonag