Senators on Bonifacio town hall raid: ‘Overkill’

SENATORS took turns calling out the police and military for their June 16 operation to force suspended Mayor Samson Dumanjug out of the town hall of Bonifacio, Misamis Occidental.

During the first public hearing of the Senate public order and dangerous drugs committee yesterday, regarding the alleged inhumane, violent, and highly irregular acts perpetrated against Dumanjug, senators said the operation was an “overkill.”

The controversial operation stemmed from a preventive suspension order by the provincial board against Dumanjug for continuing to perform his functions as mayor despite a previous suspension order, said Misamis Occidental Governor Henry Oaminal.

The previous suspension order was issued in connection with an administrative complaint for alleged overpriced equipment against Dumanjug, an accusation the mayor denied. He also questioned the suspension orders.

Oaminal said Dumanjug and his wife Evelyn, the town’s vice mayor, were slapped with a complaint for “betrayal of public trust” and then ordered suspended again in May by the provincial board.

He said Dumanjug wouldn’t let go and stayed in the mayor’s office for 16 days.

But at the Senate, Dumanjug and his group accused the provincial government, police, and military of conspiring to trample on their rights.

Dumanjug’s group accused authorities of a string of violations and irregularities when heavily armed masked men raided the town hall in June just to force the suspended mayor out.

Senator Ronald Dela Rosa, the committee chairman, said the operation was clearly an overkill, while Senator Jinggoy Estrada called it questionable.

Senators noted that the operation was carried out by at least 28 heavily armed men with an armored carrier against one aging local politician.

Senators also questioned why Army soldiers were involved in the pure law enforcement operation when the police can handle that.

“I don’t care about your politics in Misamis Occidental. If the mayor is liable, then so be it. But why would you bind a 70-year-old person into a wheelchair? That is not only demeaning to a public official but also embarrassing to his family and relatives,” Estrada said.

Authorities denied allegations that they tied up Dumanjug but admitted that they restrained him in a wheelchair for “his protection.”

Dumanjug said a member of the team pointed a rifle at him after the group shattered windows in the town hall.

He said the police did not bother reading him his rights when they arrested him.

At the hearing, Dumanjug alleged that members of the Incident Command System of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office tied his hands and feet, while his head was wrapped with a malong.

Dumanjug told the committee that no one even read him his Miranda Rights during the raid.

One of Dumanjug’s lawyers told senators that he was not immediately allowed to see and assist the mayor and was even asked to show a contract of engagement with his client.

Another Dumanjug lawyer, Regine Gallego, said she called Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Major General Benjamin Acorda to complain because she was barred from seeing her client.

Acorda confirmed that Gallego called him up, and he instructed her to hand her phone to the police official who was calling the shots.

No police official talked to Acorda.

“This is a breakdown in discipline. At the least, this is insubordination,” Dela Rosa blurted.

For his part, police Captain Mark Albert Bienes told the committee that he did not believe at that time that the PNP chief was at the other end of the line.

Dumanjug said that when he was taken to an ambulance owned by the provincial government, a nurse allegedly tried to inject something into his arm without his consent. He presented three witnesses to the committee to corroborate his statement.

Dela Rosa said he would have the nurse subpoenaed to appear in the next hearing that he scheduled for 9 am today. (This article was first published on Rappler.)