The surprise for Bacolod folk: the appearance of PO1 Nicolas Tacinco, son of a former police chief, who was immediately included in the Witness Protection Program of the justice department purportedly by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez.
Tancinco, according to Tom Orola, brother-in-law of former Pahanocoy barangay captain Eleuterio Salabas testified during the bail hearing of the kidnap-murder case before Branch 54 Judge Teresa Soriano.
The hearing is being conducted to determine whether Senior Inspector Clarence Dongail and two dozen policemen and civilian co-accused are entitled to bail.
The case, which dates back to August 2003, has captured the imagination of Bacolod folk. It is considered one of the longest lasting preliminary investigations into a kidnap-murder case.
Gonzalez told Aksyon Radyo Tuesday that there were strong indications that Tacinco would be rubbed out to silence him as one of the state witnesses in the celebrated case.
There was reportedly the maneuver by several junior police officers to have him join a reunion in Victorias City recently. This was foiled when Tacinco was confined in a hospital for high blood pressure.
Lawyer Nilo Sorbito, Tacinco’s counsel, also confirmed that a police officer involved in the recent killing of a Marcia resident, Jobert Debulgao, had visited Tacinco’s home and tried to attack him.
This latest development may finally end next month in the bail hearing.
The case has drawn the attention of Bacolodnons and gave some relief to Salabas’ widow Elizabeth, sister of former congressman John Orola Jr. of Bacolod City.
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Clergymen and their allies in the Bacolod Diocese are readying plans to mount a major protest action. Most of these clergymen are veterans of the struggle against the Marcos dictatorship.
They are also backed by a broad alliance of anti-poverty and anti-VAT organizations which have joined the institutional Church’s petition in Bacolod against the efforts of the present regime to carry out Charter change through a constituent assembly (con-ass).
Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra earlier had told journalists that the diocese would oppose the move.
Among the most vocal in opposing the con-ass are Fr. Irineo Cordoncillo, Bago City parish priest and a noted human rights advocate, and Fr. Armando Onion, chairman of the Mascao Multipurpose Sugar Cooperative and now Granada (Bacolod) parish priest. There is also Guillermo Barreta Jr. of the Negros Alliance Against Poverty and Advance VAT.
There are other allied groups, which have indicated their desire to join the protest.
Eight cops suspended in hazing scandal
Region 6 police director Isagani Cuevas on Tuesday signed the 90-day suspension order against two police officers and six non-commissioned officers accused of having maltreated 51 policemen and policewomen enrolled in the Special Counter-Insurgency Course at Camp Aniceto Lacson in Victorias City.
The eight policemen and women served as 6th Regional Mobile Group instructors and trainers of the PNP Scout training program in Victorias City.
Those suspended were identified as Inspectors Stephen Somosot, and Dianne Grace Acquitania and police officers Mark Hecita, Mark Grade, Rizal Hommena, Oliver Salazar, Jean Hiponia, and Marife Cantomayor.
Police doctors dispatched by Cuevas discovered that 51 of the 242 SCOUT trainees, 22 of them women, had hematomas and contusions on the legs, buttocks and thighs, allegedly inflicted by their instructors and tactical officers.
The initial recommendation for the suspension was made by Superintendent Remus Zacharias Canieso, 6th RMG director, and former PNP provincial director Rosendo Franco.
That capped the public scandal on the police hazing incident that had caught the attention of Negrenses.
The bothersome thing is the indication that hazing has become an institutional practice among police trainers and supervisors, contravening the principles the police stand for.
ADDENDUM. Rene Genove of the Visayas Daily Star’s Dumaguete bureau reported that the Negros Oriental provincial crime laboratory ruled no foul play in the death of German national Guido Dauerer, 43, who was found sprawled in his blood in the comfort room of his hotel room. The report by Superintendent Owen John Libaquin, crime laboratory chief, was forwarded by Dumaguete police chief Leonoldo Catanag to the Germany Embassy in Manila. Police recovered cash amounting to P18,000 and 50 euros and valuables in the hotel room of the German national. Initially, there were a lot of speculations on Dauerer’s death. Police, however, found no evidence of foul play. He apparently committed suicide with a razor blade that was found near his body.