‘Ensure no whitewash in probe of 4 lawmen’

President Arroyo has ordered Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes to ensure no whitewash in the investigation into the arrest of four Southern Police District policemen in Calamba City while they were about to dispose of the body of a "salvage" (summary execution) victim last Thursday.

Reyes sits as chairman of the National Police Commission which handles administrative cases against erring policemen and imposes sanctions.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the human rights policy of the Arroyo administration is violated by the "salvaging" of a suspected criminal.

"Salvaging has no place in a civilized society where we value human life and protect human rights," Bunye said.

The four lawmen — PO2 Cenon Carolina, of the Makati City police, and PO2 Marcelino Taduyo and PO1s Reynaldo Saronel and Ramil Marqueta, all of the Pasay City police — were apprehended in Barangay Baradas, Calamba City shortly after midnight Thursday, along with Carolina’s elder brother Pablito, a civilian police asset.

A search of the group’s L-300 van parked in an isolated road yielded a handcuffed body of a man, with a nylon rope still looped around the neck.

The "salvage" victim was a suspected robber who allegedly killed a colleague of the four lawmen a few years ago.