Top Cagayan Valley cops face raps for arrests

NUEVA VIZCAYA, Philippines—Top police officials and personnel in the Cagayan Valley region are facing criminal and administrative charges over the arrest of the employees of a gambling firm in Villaverde town last month.

Chief Supt. Miguel Laurel, regional police director, along with 14 police officials and personnel, was charged in the Office of the Ombudsman and the National Police Commission with grave misconduct, oppression and dishonesty.

The cases stemmed from the arrests of 22 employees of Meridien Vista Gaming Corp. while they were conducting a jai-alai numbers game in Barangay Bintawan Norte on April 25.

The Meridien employees also filed charges against Senior Supt. Joselito John Santos, regional police intelligence chief; Senior Supt. Valfrie Tabian, Nueva Vizcaya police director; Supt. Remus Medina, regional public safety battalion acting chief, and Senior Insp. Ronald Tapat, chief of the regional special operations group.

Twelve members of the team who conducted the raid, all of them members of the Philippine National Police Regional Special Operations Group, were also included in the charges.

The complainants sought the policemen’s dismissal from service and preventive suspension pending investigation of the charges.

The Inquirer tried but failed to reach Laurel through his two mobile phone numbers on Sunday. Tabian did not take calls or respond to text messages sent to his mobile phone.

In a seven-page joint complaint-affidavit, the Meridien employees said a team of policemen, supposedly acting on orders of Laurel and other officials, barged into the betting station and arrested the employees on suspicion that they were conducting “jueteng” operations in the area.

“We asked [the policemen] for the reasons of the raid and arrests, but [they] ordered us to back off and started ransacking all equipment and items inside the station,” the complaint said.

The policemen handcuffed the employees despite their efforts to present permits and other pieces of evidence as bases for their activities, the complainants said in their sworn statement.

“Respondents had acted in concert to conduct a raid on our office premises and unlawfully arrested us without any reasonable ground, [even though we showed] evidence that our business had the necessary permits and licenses to operate,” they added.

They also accused the police team of seizing about P50,000 in cash and other personal belongings, even if these, they said, were not related to the gaming operations of the company.

“As peace officers, it is highly expected that they will at least uphold the law at all times; but they have misused, abused and exploited the same for self-pleasure. True, justice without force is powerless, but force without justice is tyrannical,” the complainants said.

The police’s April 25 raid came two days after agents of the National Bureau of Investigation launched a series of raids in the towns of Bayombong, Bagabag and Quezon against Bingo Milyonaryo betting stations, and arrested 43 agents over allegations that these were engaged in illegal jueteng operations.

Bingo Milyonaryo resumed its operations in these towns after the arrested employees posted bail.

The police have not launched any operation against Bingo Milyonaryo in the province despite reports that this was being operated illegally as jueteng. Melvin Gascon, Inquirer Northern Luzon