Cop faces raps for hitting Pasay boy with ‘tabo’

PO3 Ferdinand Dotor

A member of the Southern Police District (SPD) is facing a complaint for child abuse after allegedly hitting a boy with a dipper (tabo) and choking him in a Pasay City alley on Wednesday.

The family of the 12-year-old boy filed a complaint in the city prosecutor’s office on Thursday against PO3 Ferdinand Dotor of the SPD’s Public Safety Battalion. “I want him jailed and dismissed from service,” the boy’s mother said of Dotor.

According to the complaint, the boy was walking around 5 p.m. on St. Catherine Street, Barangay 179, Maricaban, when Dator threw water at him. Dator was reportedly drunk and was taking a bath outside his house.

Drenched, the minor tried to fight back and picked up a bottle he saw on the ground, but the officer grabbed him by the neck and pushed him against a wall. The officer then repeatedly hit him with the dipper he was using.

A medical certificate attached to the complaint said the boy suffered a cut below his left eye and bruises on his nose. According to the mother, Dator had slapped her son before with a slipper, but she was too afraid to sue because he was a policeman.

Barangay 179 chair Clemente Basnillo said other residents had also experienced being bullied by Dator but no one had dared to file a complaint until Thursday. —Dexter Cabalza