PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa in his virtual presscon. Image grabbed from the PNP Facebook page
MANILA, Philippines — The leadership of the Philippine National Police (PNP) has ordered an investigation against a police officer at a Quezon City police station involved in hitting a minor with a stick while enforcing the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) protocols.
“Tungkol dun sa QC, pina-imbestigahan ko na. Tinawagan ko si district director and currently they are investigating on that alleged beating nung stick,” PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa said in an online press conference when asked about the viral video on the incident involving a policeman who reportedly hit a 13-year-old boy with a stick.
(About the Quezon City incident, I already ordered to investigate it. I called the district director of QC and currently they are investigating on that alleged beating with a stick.)
A report from Batasan police station 6 showed that Police Cpl. Albert Aquino was tagged in the alleged physical abuse of a child.
In the police report, Aquino and barangay officials were enforcing lockdown protocols when they approached a group of minor playing with coins along Liwanag Street on Barangay Old Balara on Wednesday, April 28, afternoon.
The other minors were able to escape except for the victim, who is a 13-year-old boy. But police said the victim accidentally slipped, sustaining injuries in his back.
The mother of the victim, meanwhile, went to Batasan police station to complain that his son was hit by Aquino using a baton.
Aquino, who is assigned at the police community precinct 1 in Old Balara, was relieved from his duty and was assigned to administrative work.
Later on, the victim’s mother decided not to sue the policeman and other barangay officials.
‘Not an excuse’
But the PNP chief reminded his police officers that it is not an excuse to complain about being tired if they fail to perform maximum tolerance.
“But sinabi ko nga sa mga kapulisan, hindi pwedeng maging rason na pagod tayo, napaka init … na makalimutan yung police operational procedure,” he said.
(As I have said to my policemen, we cannot complain about the hot weather or being tired for us to forget about police operational procedure.)
He also reminded station commanders to lecture their ranks about police operational procedure.