Probe starts of illegal detention vs Digos cop

DAVAO CITY—The Internal Affairs Service (IAS) of the Southern Mindanao police has started investigating an administrative complaint filed by an Inquirer staffer against a police officer in Digos City for arbitrary detention.

The case stemmed from Supt. Joe Neil Rojo’s order to have Allan Nawal, the Inquirer’s assistant bureau chief for Mindanao, locked up at the Digos police detention cell on July 13, 2013, for unspecified charges.

A similar charge, which is criminal in nature, has also been filed by Nawal against Rojo at the Ombudsman.

Supt. Pedro Cabatingan, IAS regional deputy director, said Rojo had yet to answer the charges. “The summons was sent out last December,” he said.

In both administrative and criminal complaints, Nawal said that when he was taken into police custody, under Rojo’s instruction, on the night of July 12, 2013, he was made to believe that he was being invited for a talk with Rojo.

Before the arrest, Nawal said at least two mobile patrol vehicles came to his house purportedly to verify a report about gunfire. Nawal said he did not fire his gun on that day and even volunteered to go to the station with his licensed gun for ballistics and paraffin tests.

But on the way to the station, Nawal said his path was blocked by a patrol car. Chief Insp. Val Carillo approached him and asked if he had a gun with him, telling him to proceed to the police station as “Rojo would like to talk with you.”

Nawal said it was only at dawn of July 13 when he realized he had been arrested without a specific charge.

Before Rojo supposedly called him to the police station, Nawal had been accused by Rojo of being a “big-time” drug pusher. Dennis Jay Santos and Eldie Aguirre, Inquirer Mindanao