Cops warned of contempt for no-show

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines  â€” Special investigator Dr. Jess Cañete of the Commission on Human Rights in Negros Oriental had warned he will be forced to take appropriate sanctions against five police officers who failed to appear at his office in relation to an investigation proceeding.

The policemen who were subpoenaed to the CHR office Monday morning were Supt. Reynold Andot, Sr. Insp. Alvin Futalan, Insp. Richmond Conag, SPO4 Blas Alpeche and SPO1 Anthony Sun, all of whom however failed to appear for various reasons, which Cañete said were unacceptable to him.

The five were called to help in the identification of a man in a video footage while receiving "tong" or commission from operators  of  "panchong" (an illegal Chinese gambling game using dominoes).

The man, later identified as a certain Ronald Pineda, has allegedly claimed to be the personal driver of Negros Oriental PNP OIC director Sr. Supt. Noli Romana, who in turn denied such claim.

Pineda was the subject of a CHR investigation after two "panchong" operators said he was allegedly extorting money from them while bringing the name of Romana in collecting "tong" during wakes.

According to Cañete, he received a text message from Andot Monday morning saying he could not attend the CHR investigation proceeding as he was asked to report to the Police Regional Office-7 in Cebu.

Conag, for his part, told CHR last Friday that he was in Mindanao on leave, while Alpeche spoke to Cañete himself explaining that he was waiting for the police officials at the camp but they did not arrive so he decided against going to the CHR.

Cañete said he gave a verbal warning to the police officers, through Alpeche, that the next time they failed to appear, he will go through the process and cite them for contempt and ask them to explain in writing why they failed to show up at his office.

The police officials may be charged for violation of Republic Act 6713 or the Code of Conduct of a Public Official for refusing to respond to a formal communication, the CHR subpoena, said Cañete, adding that he will withhold any application for CHR clearances for promotion, schooling or retirement by these police officers if they persist not to cooperate with his office.

No date has yet been set for the policemen to appear at Cañete's office to view the video footage, but Cañete said he will give them enough time to determine when they are free to participate in the investigation. – (FREEMAN)