Eastern Visayas police chief sacked after 10,000 ‘Yolanda’ death claim

AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Eastern Visayas regional police chief who claimed that 10,000 people died in Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (Haiyan) onslaught in Leyte has been relieved of his post,  the Philippine National Police said Friday.

Police Chief Superintendent Elmer Soria, chief of the PNP Region 8, was relieved so he could undergo “stress debriefing,” Senior Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac, PNP-Public Information Office chief, said.

Sindac stressed however that the PNP decision to replace him was not due to Soria’s claim  Sunday that about 10,000 people were believed to have died in Leyte alone.

“We had a meeting last night with the governor and, based on the government’s estimates, initially there are 10,000 casualties (dead),” Soria had told reporters in Tacloban.

The official count of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council then was just over a hundred.

As of the latest count, NDRRMC said that as of 6 a.m, 2,360 were confirmed dead.

“[But] actually, it’s more than that,” Sindac said.

“We all know for one thing, Police Chief Superintendent Elmer Soria and many of our police officers from Region 8 have been through a lot for the past days and they may be experiencing what you may call ‘acute stress reaction’,” he said.

“As such, it was deemed by higher headquarters that PCSupt Soria might need to go through some ‘stress debriefing’,” Sindac said.
He said Soria would be replaced by Police Chief Superintendent Henry Losañes, the former Director of the PNP Maritime Group.

Losañes was not affected by the recent typhoon, Sindac said.