By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent
FIVE policemen in Opol town, Misamis Oriental, are now facing multiple criminal and administrative complaints for allegedly mauling and torturing two boys.
This as Christy Pacamo and Mary Grace Acut of Pag-ibig City Homes in Opol went to the Commission of Human Rights (CHR) to file complaints against the policemen for allegedly torturing their children, aged 13 and 12 years old, into admitting to stealing electrical wires from unoccupied houses in the subdivision.
Pacamo and Acut filed complaints of physical injury and child abuse against the five Opol policemen before the CHR. The parents said they would also file administrative cases against the five before the National Police.
Pacamo and Acut told the Gold Star Daily that their children could name only one of the five policemen––PO3 Rodel Suaybaguio.
“Gibunalan ang among ulo ug silhig ug newspaper. Gisumbag mi nila. Gipakaon pa ’mi og sili. Gipakuryentihan pa ‘mi ug gipa-squat pa gyud,” one of the minors said of their alleged harrowing experience in the hands of the policemen.
The minor alleged that the five policemen, led by Suaybaguio, started taking turns in mauling and torturing them inside the Opol police station at around 3 pm in Oct. 9.
He added that the policemen forced them to admit and name their supposed accomplices in stealing electrical wires.
An Oct. 12 medical examination by Dr. Ruby Aseniero of the JR Borja General Hospital here bolstered the minors’ claims.
“Lacerated wound, superficial, 0.5cm and 0.5cm punctured wound at the right forearm secondary to alleged mauling,” reads part of Aseniero’s medical certificate on one of the minors.
Suaybaguio, for his part, denied the accusations.
He claimed that they turned over the two minors to the town’s social welfare officials right after the subdivision’s guard—who claimed to have seen the two minors stealing electrical wires—handed them over to the police station.
“Wala man namo sila kulataha, amo man sila nga gi-turnover sa DSWD sa Opol,” Suaybaguio said.
A police blotter, however, shows that guard Jimmy Villamor surrendered the two minors to the police station for allegedly stealing electrical wires inside the subdivision at 11 am, Oct. 9. It also shows that the boys were released at 4:30 pm or over five hours after the boys’ parents fetched them at the Opol police station.
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