After drug exposé, Antipolo mayor stops financial aid for police

THE ANTIPOLO City government has suspended all financial support for its 235 policemen starting today (Wednesday) pending the results of a probe into allegations made by a Senate inquiry witness linking some of them to the drug trade.

Antipolo Mayor Jun Ynares told reporters on Tuesday that the withdrawal of “contingency and financial support” for the city’s police force was aimed at ensuring that “government funds and resources are used prudently.”

However, he vowed to double the policemen’s funding should the accusation against them prove to be baseless.

“I am frustrated over the allegations… But we are not saying they are guilty,” Ynares said, adding: “Prudence dictates that we withhold the contingency and financial support [from] the police.”

“Antipolo has a very bad crime and order situation; in fact, Antipolo then had the highest crime rate in the whole of Region IV-A, that’s why our [local government unit] prioritized the police more than anything. We gave them what they need and worked with them every day, that’s why it is really frustrating [to hear] news that my uniformed policemen used the LGU’s resources to commit crime and abuses,” Ynares told the Inquirer.

He said that as Antipolo mayor in 2013, he prioritized peace and order in the city budget, allocating a monthly allowance of P1,500 each for the police in addition to an unlimited gas allowance for each police vehicle.

Ynares added that the Antipolo LGU also provided the police force with vehicles, computers and handheld radios. “We also trained them and held seminars on effective prosecution of cases. We did that to help the police become effective in their jobs and yet there are [frustrating] reports like this.”

But Ynares expressed disappointment over the low conviction rate in the city. “We have many arrests but [the] majority or more than 70 percent are being dismissed — and the courts, the police and prosecutors are blaming each other,” he said.

The mayor added that he had already talked to the Rizal provincial director, Senior Supt. Adriano Enong Jr., to make sure that their operations would not be affected by the suspension of LGU support.

According to Enong, the five policemen implicated in the recycling of drugs by Senate witness Mary Rose Aquino have been relieved and ordered to report to Camp Crame.

He identified them as PO2 Ely Barcelo Jr., PO2 Allan Barangan, PO2 Dennis Malabanan, PO1 Reynald Rabe and PO1 Joseph Ivan Gammad.

“It is good that these things are being brought out in the open; that people are complaining. We will not tolerate this [and] will make sure the truth comes out,” Enong said.

YNARES

He added that most of the time, the relatives of victims of extrajudicial killings do not go to the police, preferring to deal directly with the Commission on Human Rights. “That’s why we do not know about this,” he said.

At the Senate hearing on extrajudicial killings on Monday, Aquino testified that some Antipolo policemen whom she identified only as Torres, Rabe, Gamad and Hong or Ong gave her parents recycled “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) to sell.

Aquino, who admitted that her parents Rodelio and Rosalie used and sold drugs and also served as “police assets,” said that the couple left home on June 20 to remit P50,000 cash to a police contact.  Two days later, she found their bodies in a morgue.

Philippine National Police Chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa ordered the administrative relief of the policemen concerned, directing them to submit themselves to an investigation at Camp Crame. He also ordered the PNP Internal Affairs Service to place the entire Antipolo police station under investigation.