Sadists in the 6th RMG - Cuevas

There are a lot of stories. But none can possibly top this one. A total of 51 police trainees, 22 of them women, were found positive for contusions and bruises on their bodies from beating they purportedly received from their instructors and trainers. All were undergoing training under the Regional Mobile Group (RMG) in Victorias City.

Regional police director Isagani Cuevas said he has already relieved those responsible from their positions and placed them under restriction at Camp Aniceto Lacson in Victorias City.

Camp director Remus Zacharias Canieso was reportedly in Boracay for a “special mission” when the incident happened.

The trainees were part of the 242 undergoing a 45-day PNP scout training in Victorias City.

The alleged “hazing” reportedly took place last Nov. 1 at the 6th RMG headquarters in Victorias City.

Two years ago, three RMG police instructors were suspended for several months for inflicting injuries on neophyte policemen taking up the same course at the camp.

Cuevas, however, said there has been no formal complaint on the alleged maltreatment until now. Apparently the neophytes were afraid of reprisals from their tactical officers and instructors.

Chief Inspector Katherine Gebusion of the Negros Occidental PNP health service unit, said the 51 police officers have hematoma and contusions on their thighs, upper buttocks, and hands purportedly inflicted by their instructors.

The 51, according to Gebusion, confessed to have been hit with sticks on their hands and fingers, GI pipes, PBC pipes, two-by-two pieces of wood and bamboo sticks on their buttocks, legs and thighs.

One of the alleged instructors was reportedly a policeman. Most of the tactical officers were graduates of the Philippine National Police Academy. Some were reportedly members of the elite Special Action Force of the PNP.

Gebusion added that 11 of the 51 victims underwent medical treatment at the Teresita Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City and the findings of the hospital were the same as those of the team of PNP physicians who had examined them.

While the victims themselves have not filed any complaint with the police, their parents and relatives have sought the help of media.

Superintendent Napoleon Riolo led a team of police doctors and nurses from Region 6 composed of Gebusion and Senior Inspectors Dexter Lopez and Jessica Descallar dispatched to Victorias City by Cuevas.

It is time for the PNP to undertake compulsory psychological and psychiatric tests for trainers and instructors. They may not have realized that traumatizing their trainees may ultimately result in also transforming the latter into sadists with callous consciences and dangerous to civilians who they are supposed to protect from criminals.

Cuevas said those responsible for the alleged maltreatment of the trainees face possible suspension, demotion and dismissal from the service. Yes, more important is that criminal cases be filed against them.

It is dangerous to have a small core of such sadists among the ranks of police instructors who could turn their wards into sadists themselves.

Heaven help the Philippines should our cops turn into this kind of officers.

Lightning’s lethal strike

I was taken aback yesterday upon hearing that a lightning struck Hacienda Camansi-Gonzaga in Barangay Roble, La Castellana town of Negros Occidental Tuesday night, killing two hacienda workers and injuring 10 others.

The fatalities and the injured were reportedly about to take their supper when they were hit by the lightning bolt. Two of them — Jobert Trio and Digoy de la Cruz — were killed on the spot.

Only two of the 14 were unhurt. They were Roly and Reynate Arante.

All were hacienda workers of Tabugon, Kabankalan City, who had been contracted to work in the La Castellana hacienda.

Four of them were considered serious enough to be transferred to the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Hospital in Bacolod City. The others were treated at the town’s rural health unit.

Advance VAT protest

Despite the issuance of a temporary restraining order for 20 days by Regional Trial Court Judge Roberto Chiongson, sugar cooperatives and their allies launched yesterday a protest action against the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

This time it was a broad alliance that included even tricycle drivers who claimed that the VAT on gasoline has raised the prices of fuel that have affected their livelihood, according to Diego Macalad, a leader of the drivers.

The protesters gathered at the Sacred Heart Seminary compound in Lupit and marched to the BIR regional office on Lacson street.

The group was spearheaded by Fr. Armand Onion, head of the Ma-ao Multipurpose Sugar Cooperative. There was also Guillermo Barreta Jr., of the Negros Labor Center, who said they have about 750 agrarian reform beneficiaries whose day-to-day existence has been adversely affected by the advance VAT collected by the BIR.

Chiongson, in issuing the TRO petitioned by the United Cadiz Sugar Farmers Association Multipurpose Cooperative, ordered the BIR to cease and desist from implementing Revenue Order 13-2008 that imposes advance Value Added Tax on refined sugar sold by sugar co-ops.

The petitioners, headed by Eric Lacson, contended that cooperatives are granted tax exemptions under the Cooperative Code of the Philippine and that the BIR regulation is void and illegal since there is no provision in the VAT law that allows advance imposition of the tax.

That’s the single major issue that threatens to galvanize sugar workers and farmers into launching another major protest action against the government.

How this will end is anybody’s guess. But admittedly with the situation becoming more critical, it could drag thousands more in the days ahead because it touches their very livelihood.