Cebu cop in hot water for doing nothing in bus rob

CEBU CITY — For failing to do anything during a bus robbery last Friday, a police officer of Bogo town is facing an investigation.

But Oscar Lumanog, community relations chief of the provincial police, said the investigation of senior police officer Ceferino Tabay is considered automatic for policemen who fail to stop a crime being committed in their presence.

Four men, who got on a PCBL bus in Danao City pretending to be ordinary passengers, announced the holdup when they reached Compostela, taking cash and other valuables of the passengers and disarming Tabay whom they discovered to be a policeman when they saw his badge as they rummaged through his bag.

The robbers were armed with two caliber .38 handguns and two grenades. Tabay had a caliber .45 pistol.

Lumanog said the investigation would determine if Tabay was negligent in failing to engage the robbers since he is mandated by law to fight crime regardless of the circumstances.

"He should be investigated because he is a police officer and he was present when the holdup took place. Policemen are mandated by law to fight crime," Lumanog said in Cebuano.

Regional police directorial staff chief Ronald Roderos joined Lumanog in saying that Tabay should be investigated.

Roderos wondered why Tabay did not shoot the robbers as they approached him and allowed them to take his gun.

On the suggestion that Tabay may have hesitated to take action for fear of endangering the more than 20 bus passengers, Roderos insisted he should have applied what he had been trained to do. He did not say what the training was.

"If there are many people, he should apply his training. He should be willing to harm (the robbers) before they could harm him," he said. — Freeman News Service