4 Negros Oriental police execs relieved amid probe on killing of 14 people

CEBU CITY — Four police officials in Negros Oriental have been relieved from their posts in the wake of investigation on the coordinated police and military operations on Saturday that killed 14 people.

Ordered relieved were Police Colonel Raul Tacaca, Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office director; Colonel Patricio Degay, Canlaon City police chief; Lt. Kevin Roy Mamaraldo, Manjuyod town police chief; and Capt. Michael Rubia, head of Manjuyod town police.

The order came from General Oscar Albayalde, Philippine National Police chief, to give way to an “impartial investigation” by Internal Affairs Services in Camp Crame.

Police Brigadier Gen. Debold Sinas, director of PRO-7, said their deputies would take over their posts while they were confined at the Camp Sergio Osmeña, headquarters of Police Regional Office in Central Visayas based in Cebu City.

Fourteen persons were killed in coordinated police and military operations to serve search warrants for unlicensed firearms.

The fatalities included eight in Canlaon City, four in Manjuyod town and two in Sta. Catalina town.

Twelve others were arrested including Corazon Javier, coordinator of the women’s group Gabriela, and Azucena Garubat, Anakpawis party-list coordinator.

Police officials said the subject of the warrants were members or supporters of the New People’s Army – an allegation refuted by the families of those who died and arrested, saying they were farmers and not rebels.

They alleged that their kin were unarmed and gunned down inside their houses.