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Police officers and personnel involved in an alleged rubout of
suspected bank robbers were suspended Tuesday by Director General
Avelino Razon Jr., the chief of the Philippine National Police, to
give way to a probe of the incident.
The sacking of Police Supt. Gilbert Sauro and
eight intelligence agents from the Batangas Police Provincial
Office, Razon said in a statement, will prevent them from “[using]
their position to influence the outcome of the investigation.”
He ordered Chief Supt. Ricardo Padilla, the
police regional director of Calabarzon, to reassign the nine
personnel to regional headquarters to ensure their availability to
face the probe. Calabarzon is composed of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas,
Rizal and Quezon.
The suspension came a day after the Commission
on Human Rights said its initial investigation showed that the four
suspects behind the May 16 massacre at Rizal Commercial Banking
Corp., or RCBC, in Cabuyao, Laguna, south of Manila, “could have
been rubbed out by policemen.” The suspects were killed on May 22
in Tanauan City, Batangas. The bank was located in an economic zone.
The commission had recommended the sacking of
the nine officers and men.
Razon assured that the national police will
provide the rights agency the documentary requirements that will
enable it to complete its own inquiry into the allegedly
extrajudicial execution of the suspected robbers.
The Commission on Human Rights has sought the
complete list of police personnel who figured in the alleged rubout.
Razon also ordered concerned national police
units to furnish the rights commission with copies of their
post-operations, autopsy and crime-scene reports.
He told Police Director Jefferson, head of the
Directorate for Investigation and Detection Management, to conduct
his own investigation to determine possible police lapses that may
have led to the alleged summary killing of the robbery suspects.
A special investigation team has been formed
under the supervision of the directorate’s deputy director, Chief
Supt. Rodolfo Mendoza, assisted by the director of the Criminal
Investigation and Detection Group, Chief Supt. Raul Castañeda. The
team is composed of officers from the Human Rights Affairs Office,
Crime Laboratory and Regional Investigation and Detective Management
Division.
The Internal Affairs Service of the national
police is also conducting an investigation of possible
irregularities that may have been committed by the Batangas police,
the lawmen at the scene in Tanauan City.
-- Maricel V. Cruz
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