Duterte slams cop’s relief for wife-beating

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. FILE PHOTO

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Mayor Rodrigo Duterte blasted the relief of Davao City police director Chief Superintendent Vicente Danao as “an exercise of hypocrisy” pending investigation of wife-beating charges and insisted that the Philippine National Police brass reinstate him immediately.

Danao’s relief stemmed from an administrative complaint of battery and other charges filed by his estranged wife at the Philippine consulate in California.

Danao’s physical and verbal abuse against his wife came to public light through a video posted on YouTube on August 9 showing the officer slapping his wife with a slipper while shouting invectives at her.

“Why relieve a person? Tell me who among the generals  did not have a quarrel with his wife?” Duterte said late Monday.

Duterte’s statement came hours after the PNP’s Southern Mindanao command confirmed Danao’s relief and the appointment of Superintendent Manuel Marvin Pepino, the local police department’s administrative chief, as officer-in-charge.

Duterte told reporters in an ambush interview late Monday he had no power to oppose the PNP’s  decision to have Danao removed but if he had his way, the embattled police officer would remain in his post.

That was why he would not recommend anybody to replace Danao, he said.

“I’m not naming anyone else,” Duterte said. “They should reinstate Danao and let Danao face his case here.”

Duterte maintained that what transpired between Danao and his wife was a “private matter” and that police authorities should not get carried away by sentiments in favor of the wife.

“Why should you be carried away by [public] sentiment? Why should you get involved in what you already know is a domestic problem?” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, I picked Danao; it’s up to Camp Crame to decide on that.”

Representative Luz Ilagan of the Gabriela Women’s Partylist earlier told reporters here there was “no such thing as a private matter when it concerns domestic violence,” which is punishable under Republic Act 9262 or the Violence against Women and Children Act.

Ilagan said domestic violence becomes “alarming” and “condemnable” when committed by ranking police officials who are supposed to implement the law.

She said Gabriela has been in direct communication with Danao’s wife and the group was helping her.

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