Supt. Lito Cabamongan. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE/PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
Who is he?
Thus said Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa when asked to give an assurance that Supt. Lito Cabamongan, the Muntinlupa Crime Laboratory chief, would not be killed while in jail.
Dela Rosa said Cabamongan, who was arrested last week after he was caught using “shabu” with a woman in a Las Piñas shanty, was “not interesting enough” to suffer the same fate as Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. who was killed by cops while in detention in November last year.
“Why? Who is he para magkainteres kami. Baka mamaya ang magka-interes sa kanya ‘yung mga kasama niya sa kulungan na pinagsisipa niya,” Dela Rosa said in a press conference at Camp Crame on Monday.
(Why? Who is he to be a person of interest? Maybe those are interested in him are the ones in jail with him, the ones he’s kicked around.)
READ: Police exec fears for life: ‘They’ll kill me like Mayor Espinosa’
“Tell him not to worry,” Dela Rosa said.
Speaking to reporters while at the Las Piñas police station, Cabamongan said the police are planning to serve a search warrant on him and claim that he has a gun while in jail.
“The police who will serve the warrant will then kill me,” he said.
That was what allegedly happened when Mayor Espinosa died inside the Baybay sub-provincial jail in Leyte last November 5 when a group of Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Eastern Visayas cops raided his cell and killed him. The operatives said they shot Espinosa because he fought back.
But Dela Rosa reiterated: “Hindi kami magka-interes sa kanila. Ang sa amin is tanggalin siya sa serbisyo. ‘Yun lang ang aming intention para matapos na; isipin mo, nahuli ka nag-pot session, colonel ka,” he added.
(We’re not interested in him. What’s important is to dismiss him from service. That’s our only intention to put an end to this; think of it, you’re caught having a drug session and you’re a colonel.)
Cabamongan was arrested a week after he was relieved for threatening mall cinema staff for not giving him free movie tickets.
He tested positive in the initial drug test conducted by the PNP Crime Laboratory last Friday. JE/rga
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