MANILA, Philippines (Updated) — A police officer was cited in contempt and ordered detained at the New Bilibid Prison for being “very evasive” during the ongoing Senate hearing Thursday.
It was Senator Panfilo Lacson who moved to cite Lt. Col. Rodney Raymundo Louie Baloyo in contempt, which was immediately seconded by Senate Minority Floor Leader Franklin Drilon.
“For consistently giving answers which are evasive, very evasive answers, we second [the motion],” Drilon said.
Senator Richard Gordon, who was presiding over the hearing as chair of the Senate committee on justice, then declared Baloyo in contempt.
“I don’t want to give him nice quarters here. Gagastos pa tayo dito. Dalhin natin siya, katulad ni Captain Faeldon — baka sabihin nila namimili tayo after Faeldon was in Pasay City jail for about six months,” the senator sad.
(I don’t want to give him nice quarters here and spend extra money for him. Let’s detain him, like Captain Faeldon, who was in Pasay City jail for about six months.)
“With the permission of everyone, we will assign him to Pasay City jail,” he added.
Gordon later said Baloyo will be detained at the New Bilibid Prison, instead of Pasay City Jail.
Baloyo headed the anti-drug operation in Pampanga in 2013 where he and 12 other Pampanga policemen were charged with grave misconduct and demoted by one rank in 2017.
The 13 Pampanga cops are now on floating status when the case against them was revived in the Senate probe. /je