Why the PNP needs to fix its negative image

Many of our friends are seriously concerned about the killing of Atty. Noel Archival who together with his aide and driver last February 17, 2014 was ambushed and killed while on his way back from a court trial in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental. That gangland style of assassination where gunmen on two vehicles peppered the lawyer's SUV with bullets has put a black mark on the Philippine National Police  because the National Bureau of Investigation   traced this dastardly murder right at the foot of the PNP's Traffic Command a.k.a. Highway Patrol Group in Region 7 as the principal suspects.

The NBI apparently traced the two vehicles right at the compound of the HPG and found bullet casings and gun powder residue inside the vehicles that were supposedly impounded and would have been difficult to trace. In the end, the NBI charged former HPG-7 director Chief Inspector Eduardo Mara, former HPG provincial chief, SP04 Edwin Galan, former HPG-7 designated custodian P01 Alex Bacani, Insp. Joselito Lerion, and Chief Supt. Romualdo Iglesia, former HPG-7 Special Operations Team chief.

To counter this murder case, the five accused from the Highway Patrol Group have now accused the NBI-7 of fabricating evidence to make it appear that they conspired to ambush and kill Atty. Archival, who is the brother of Cebu City Councilor Nestor Archival. Now these are serious accusations hurled by the NBI against the officers of the Highway Patrol Group who in turn are accusing the NBI of fabricating evidence, which is also a very serious accusation against the NBI. But for the many years we've been looking into the NBI, this is the first time ever that we've heard an accusation against them for fabricating evidence.

Now we're not saying that the NBI is squeaky clean. In fact on December 13, 2002, NBI agents went into a shooting rampage against employees of Plantation Bay, injuring five on board a Mitsubishi L-300 Van. But then, this wrongful or mistaken identity shooting was investigated by then NBI chief Reynaldo Wycoco.

Honestly, I haven't followed up what happened to those NBI agents and their confidential agents involved in that shooting. I only know that after that incident, the NBI stopped issuing Confidential Agents ID's. Yes, I remember questioning the NBI then -- why issue an ID to a confidential agent? It only exposes the card holder to the public and therefore he is no longer confidential. Yes, so far, I haven't seen anyone sporting an ID which blares "NBI Confidential Agent" which was quite common in the past.

But that was the NBI then. Today, there are now officials in NBI-7 who are highly-professional, led by NBI Max Salvador. I had a talk with him on this very issue and even questioned him on how he obtained that evidence right smack within the compound of the HPG. But Atty. Salvador made sure that everything has been properly covered.

So I can only second guess that this case being filed against the NBI by the accused belonging to the HPG is nothing but a mere harassment. Atty. Salvador is correct in insisting that the accused from the HPG should answer point by point the charges that the NBI pinned against them.

We should be concerned about this case not because it is a high-pro-file case but rather we strongly believe that the police should be the protector of the citizenry and it is very disturbing that policemen these days are involved in high profile crimes. Mind you, I was still on vacation in the US when I learned via Facebook that Richard King, the owner of Crown Regency Group of Hotels was shot inside the Vital C Building in a meeting in Davao City. This was quite a shock, after all Mr. King has put up the tallest building in Cebu City and his business was growing by leaps and bounds.

What was quite interesting was that Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte went out of his way to find the suspected killers and they caught three men, Mr. Paul Labang, who was identified as the gunman, Mr. Rodel dela Cerna, who acted as the driver of the get-away motorcycle, and Rommel dela Cerna, who acted as the lookout. But as the news reports pointed out, Rommel dela Cerna was also a police informant and tagged a police official at the Police Regional Office in Region 11 as the mastermind of King's killing.

So last June 23rd, Mayor Duterte said that Police Superintendent Leonardo Felonia, the chief of Regional Intelligence Unit in Davao Region surrendered to him. Now we wait with bated breath whether criminal charges would be filed against Supt. Felonia. But in the meantime, back here in Cebu, it is high time that the PNP cleansed its ranks from men in uniform that use their authority for criminal gain. We don't want the Filipino people to be scared of our policemen, which is why the PNP needs to go into a high PR offensive so they can fix this highly-negative image.