Top Mandaluyong cop admits ‘honest mistake’

An honest mistake.

This was the explanation given by Mandaluyong police chief Senior Supt. Florendo Quibuyen, one of the nine Metro police officials accused by Camp Crame of underreporting the crime statistics for the first half of the year in their areas of jurisdiction.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday after a conference called by Chief Supt. Marcelo Garbo, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) director, Quibuyen said it was an honest mistake and that his office did not tamper with the figures in the report it submitted to the Philippine National Police.

“If you say ‘doctor’ (Filipino slang for tampering with data), that’s intentional, deliberate,” he told reporters, adding that if his office really wanted to alter the figures, it would have started with the police blotter.

What happened, Quibuyen explained, was that the crime registrar did not include the cases handled by the women’s and children’s protection unit as these are usually tallied separately.  Incidents that were not criminal in nature such as a lost passport and cases of missing persons, among others, were also not in the report.

“What I can do now is to correct the mistakes of the crime registrar,” said Quibuyen who presented Garbo with the corrected figures from January to August during Wednesday’s conference.

He admitted, however, that there were lapses on his part as he “failed to supervise the crime registrar” while the report was being put together. He also did not review the report because he had so much to do.

Garbo, meanwhile, said that Quibuyen had already explained his side to him although the decision to relieve him and the eight other police officials would be made by PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima.

Also facing possible sanctions aside from Quibuyen were Joselito Daniel of San Juan City, Arthur Asis of Taguig and Ariel Andrade of Parañaque, Supt. Santiago Pascual of the Manila Police District (MPD) Station 4, Supt. Manam Muarip of MPD Station 9, Supt. Limuel Obon of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Station 10 and Supt. Ramon Pranada of QCPD Station 7.