Three police officers are being investigated after they were accused by seven female police trainees of hazing at the Camp Ceferino Jenobia Regional Special Training Unit (RSTU) in Sibonga town, southern Cebu.
The women said the three, who are assistant instructors of the police camp, beat the soles of their feet with a bamboo stick as punishment.
The physical abuse occurred on three occasions on July 6, 8 and 12, according to their formal complaint.
They said they were punished when an assigned colleague would fail to prepare lunch at the mess hall, for a trainee being caught with a cell phone and for arriving late in formation.
“Labtikan sa lapa-lapa (Their soles were hit),” said PO2 Ederlino Bacusmo of the Sibonga police quoting their written complaint.
The women were accompanied by two coordinators of the National Police Commission in Central Visayas (Napolcom-7), lawyers Aloha Peñaranda and Resty Sibay when they filed their complaint last July 13 in the Sibonga police station.
Cebu Daily News is withholding the names of the parties for the meantime.
The three police officers denied the allegations of hazing.
Sibay said that the officers insisted that what they did was “purely regular training” and not hazing.
The seven female trainees were among 170 police trainees taking up scout training at the RSTU.
Sibay said that if medico-legal exam results prove the women’s complaints, the police officers would face administrative and criminal charges for violating the Anti-Hazing law. / Reporter Rhea Ruth V. Rosell