Kalinga cops disarm, detain CIDG official

PAOAY, Ilocos Norte — Kalinga policemen disarmed and detained for nine hours the provincial chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and three of his men last Friday.

A joint team of the Tabuk police and the Regional Mobile Group divested Chief Inspector Rolando Osias, CIDG-Kalinga chief, and his three men of their firearms and detained them Friday noon, releasing them only at about 9 p.m. the same day.

In a phone interview, Osias said the Kalinga policemen accused him of influencing the investigation into the July 31 ambush of Dr. Constantino Claver, Bayan Muna’s Kalinga head, his wife, Alice, and their teenage daughter, Cassandra, in Tabuk, the capital town.

Alice, also a member of Bayan Muna, was killed in the ambush, while Claver survived with several gunshot wounds. A bullet only grazed their daughter.

Task Force Bulanao, which probed the Clavers’ ambush, has indicted PO3 Jessie Caranto, a driver-bodyguard of Senior Superintendent Pedro Ramos, who has been relieved as Kalinga police director.

The task force did not implicate Ramos in the ambush, but the police colonel, in a press conference at Camp Crame last Wednesday afternoon, denied that he and Caranto had a hand in the ambush.

Ramos claimed that Osias and his men had an axe to grind against him because he busted criminal syndicates in Kalinga which allegedly enjoyed Osias’ protection.

Osias denied Ramos’ allegations, saying that he was only a member of the task force and thus could not have influenced the investigation.

Osias also insisted that he was just doing his job as an investigator and that he had nothing personal against Ramos.

Osias said the Tabuk policemen accused him of influencing the filing of murder and frustrated murder charges against Caranto in the Kalinga regional trial court.

Informed about the incident, CIDG-Cordillera chief Eduardo Bayangos fumed, saying, "Tayo ay nagtatrabaho dito tapos gaganyanin nila (We are just doing our job, and they would treat us this way)."

Ramos also accused former Kalinga governor Macario Duguiang of muddling the investigation by producing supposed witnesses.

But Duguiang dared Ramos and Caranto to file a complaint against him if he, indeed, meddled in the probe, as they have claimed.

He insisted that he does not harbor any ill will against Ramos even if the police colonel claimed that he was sore at him for arresting his men for alleged thefts.

Duguiang, however, said the arrest of these men supposedly identified with him was illegal and was not recorded in the police blotter.