Police face probe over Ocon’s wood

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent

POLICE regional director Lyndel Desquitado over the weekend said he would make the police in Medina, Misamis Oriental, explain why they released Councilor Zaldy Ocon’s ill-fated pick-up truck pending an investigation into the attempt to move protected hardwood species to this city from Surigao del Sur.

Chief Supt. Desquitado said he would order Misamis Oriental Provincial Police director Supt. Supt. Manuel Alvarez to subject the Medina police to an investigation.

Desquitado’s pronouncements came about following revelations by Medina deputy police chief Arnold Sala that the police station released the pick-up truck to Ocon hours after it figured in an accident on the highway in Purtulin, Medina past 3 am Aug. 28.

In an earlier Gold Star Daily report, Senior Insp. Sala said Ocon came at around 6 am, showed documents of car ownership, and then the town police released the damaged vehicle that was used in transporting 138 lumbers. Authorities said a total of 711 board feet of protected lauan and magcono from Lianga, Surigao del Sur were seized after the accident.

Environment officials in Gingoog City said Ocon’s black Toyota Hi-Lux pick-up truck was already gone when their team arrived in Medina two Fridays ago because the police allowed the councilor to tow it to Cagayan de Oro. The Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) in Gingoog is scheduled to look into the Ocon case this week. It said Ocon and the driver of the ill-fated pick-up truck were summoned to explain.

Desquitabo assured that there would be no whitewash in the investigation to be conducted by Alvarez. He said the results of Alvarez’s investigation and the explanation of the Medina police on why they released a vital evidence to Ocon would be made public.

Desquitado said the vehicle should not have been released pending the results of an investigation by the Department of Natural Resources (DENR) in Gingoog because the vehicle would have been used as an “exhibit.” He said Ocon had no reason to worry if the act of transporting the lumbers was legal, and because the vehicle would have been kept in a safe place.

“If there was no problem with his papers, the vehicle would have been released to him,” Desqutado said. Ocon earlier admitted that the seized lumbers were his, and that he bought these for P29 thousand to be used in a house he is constructing in Barangay Cugman, this city. He maintained his innocence as he showed a store receipt to point out that he bought the protected hardwood species.

Ocon, incidentally, is the chairman of the city council’s environment committee.