Had the entire complement of Highway Patrol Group (HPG)-Region 7 based in Cebu been relieved after this column exposed the alleged extortion activities of the “Magnificent 7,” lawyer Noel Archival would still be alive today.
Archival and his two companions were killed in an ambush perpetrated by policemen from HPG-7 on Feb. 18, according to findings by the National Bureau of Investigation.
(Magnificent 7 refers not to the number of men at the HPG 7, but to the number “7” after the letters H, P and G)
I wrote about the alleged extortion activities of the Magnificent 7 on Oct. 17, 2013, after some of their victims complained to me.
The victims said HPG-7 cops would intercept imported vehicles whose owners didn’t pay customs duties and impound them until they come up with a P200,000 bribe.
I remember writing in that Oct. 17 column: “Supt. Romualdo Iglesia, HPG-7 chief, didn’t act on their (victims’) complaints against his men. That’s why they came to me all the way from Cebu.”
A day after that column came out, Chief Supt. Arrazad Subong, HPG chief, in a letter to this columnist dated Oct. 18, 2013, defended his men in Cebu.
But as a “consuelo de bobo” (cold comfort), Subong told me the HPG’s investigation division in Camp Crame was ordered to conduct an inquiry based on the report in my column.
Just thinking aloud: If the gods in Camp Crame had relieved all the personnel at Magnificent 7 while they were being investigated, perhaps lawyer Archival would still be enjoying his life with his family today.
Archival left a young wife and five children ages 13, 11, 10, 4 and 3.
The Magnificent 7 apparently suspected Archival as having told me about the extortion activities since he handled the extortion complaints against them.
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Archival’s killing seems to send a message to civilians who have gripes against erring cops: Don’t mess with us, don’t complain or else…
The national leadership should be reminded that during the time of President Marcos, civilians who fell victim to abusive soldiers and policemen couldn’t complain or didn’t know where to go for redress.
So, they did the unthinkable: They either went to the New People’s Army (NPA) for justice or joined the ranks of NPA sympathizers and supporters.
That’s why during the martial law years, the ranks of the NPA were bursting at the seams.
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Senior Supt. Elnora Bernardino, then Palawan PNP director, was so arrogant she called her superior, then Director General Recaredo Sarmiento, Philippine National Police chief a “bobocop.”
Bobocop is a play on words derived from the title of a movie, Robocop, a robot policeman, and bobo, meaning stupid.
Sarmiento, a gentleman of the first order, didn’t react because Bernardino is a woman.
When Bernardino was assigned in Palawan, she met her match in the person of Supt. Feliciano Dimayuga, then Puerto Princesa City police chief.
Bernardino went fuming to the office of Dimayuga, her subordinate officer, after the latter arrested the goons of her backer, a politician, running for reelection in the 1998 elections in the province.
She then demanded the release of the goons at the top of her voice.
Dimayuga replied, “Ma’am, I respect you because you’re my superior. But you are in my station and you should give me due respect. If you don’t stop shouting I will shoot you.”
Bernardino, pale in the face, left in a huff.
Lesson in karma: What you made another feel with your unkind words, you will be made to feel later.