Rogue CIDG policemen

KUDOS  to Director General Nick Bartolome, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), for relieving the entire complement of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Batangas province.

Bartolome ordered the entire CIDG-Batangas team reassigned to the holding center in Camp Crame where they can be summoned by the courts.

The Batangas-CIDG members, including a woman wearing a lot of jewelry, have been charged with kidnapping for ransom, robbery extortion and illegal detention.

Kidnapping for ransom is a nonbailable offense.

Members of the PNP Intelligence Group from Camp Crame and intelligence units from Camp Vicente Lim in Laguna province raided the CIDG-Batangas office inside the Batangas City police camp on Friday night and rescued Ma. Cristina Rodriguez, a student and resident of Pasay City.

Rodriguez’s family claimed CIDG-Batangas cops demanded P500,000 for her release after she was arrested for alleged drug-pushing.

Cristina said she was arrested by CIDG-Batangas operatives in Pasay while she was on her way to a supermarket.

She said she didn’t know the reason why she was arrested since she  hasn’t committed any crime.

And granting that she did, the CIDG-Batangas was clearly operating out of  its jurisdiction when it arrested Cristina.

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The raid on the Batangas-CIDG office was hatched inside my office Friday afternoon at radio dwIZ in Pasig City after Rodriguez’s sister, Necel, complained to us at “Isumbong mo kay Tulfo” about her arrest and the alleged demand of P500,000 for her release.

After hearing Necel’s complaint I called up Director General Bartolome and told him the story.

Bartolome sent Senior Supt. Allen Bartolo, deputy director of the PNP Intelligence Group, to my office.

Within an hour, Bartolome and his men, with my “Isumbong” staff in tow, went to Camp Vicente Lim to coordinate with the Southern Tagalog regional office on the raid they would conduct.

Members of the Southern Tagalog police intelligence units were added to the raiding team from Camp Crame.

* * *

By ordering the raid on the CIDG-Batangas and the filing of criminal charges against its members, Bartolome once again showed that he does not tolerate rogue policemen.

When he was still chief of the National Capital Region Police Office, Bartolome ordered the dismissal or suspension of a number of abusive cops.

The citizenry can sleep well at night knowing they enjoy protection from rogue cops in the person of the PNP chief.

* * *

Judge Librado Chavez of the Municipal Trial Court of Talisay, Batangas, recently ruled in favor of the Jalco Group of Companies Inc.  over a land dispute in Laurel town with small businessman Jay Tito Ojeda.

Jalco is owned by former Batangas governor Tony Leviste who is now in jail.

Ojeda, the losing litigant, complained that the judge ignored the “strong” evidence he presented in court showing he owned the disputed piece of land.

He said the evidence consisted of records in the Bureau of Lands and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Ojeda claimed Jalco doesn’t have the records that he has.

Perhaps the good judge can explain his decision?