Napolcom exec sacked over video: ‘You want me to smash that phone?’

An official of the National Police Commission (Napolcom) was relieved of her post and placed under investigation over an Internet video purportedly showing her in a heated argument with police officers and barangay officials in Bacoor, Cavite province.

Napolcom-National Capital Region (NCR) acting regional director Ferdaussi Masnar issued a memo on Wednesday relieving Ana Maria Paglinawan, acting chief of Napolcom-NCR’s administrative division.

The video, which was posted on the Police Digest Facebook page on Oct. 27 and uploaded by Mike Almanza, showed Paglinawan in an altercation with two police officers and a barangay official of Justinville Panapaan VII in Bacoor, Cavite.

Napolcom vice chair Eduardo Escueta ordered the creation of a team composed of senior officials from the Napolcom Inspection, Monitoring and Investigation Service to look into the incident. “We want to assure the public that the Commission shall not tolerate any wrongdoing committed by its officials and employees that may taint the good image of the Napolcom,” Escueta said.

In the video, a woman in a purple shirt and black pants, later identified as Paglinawan, was seen confronting two police officers and demanding that they give their names as she accused them of “harassing” her nephew.

She then vented her ire on the person taking the video, Almanza. “Do you have the right to take a video? Do you want me to smash that (phone camera)?” she said in Filipino.

Paglinawan was later seen pushing a woman, who was then carrying an infant, after she saw her also taking a video of the incident. “You don’t have the right to take a video! I’m an official!” she yelled.

Still taking the video, Almanza approached the woman and the child to help them and could be heard telling Paglinawan: “You’re an official? So am I. I was elected!”

Almanza later posted the clip on Facebook, with a note saying that the woman in the video rushed to Justinville after a neighborhood disturbance caused by her relative prompted the barangay chair to call the police. He added that the woman claimed to be a lawyer and official of Napolcom.

The other woman who was pushed for taking a video was his wife and the baby she was carrying was their child, he said.

“She (Paglinawan) insisted that we didn’t have the right to take a video… She even threw away my cell phone so I couldn’t continue recording. Is that how people in government behave?” Almanza said in his post. “She insulted me, the police and our neighbors.”