Pelaez backs calls to replace Cariaga

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent

MISAMIS Oriental Vice Gov. Jose Mari Pelaez is contemplating on convincing provincial board members into joining their counterparts in the city council in calling for the ouster of city police director Ronnie Francis Cariaga and all his subordinates as an offshoot of the Oct. 23 abduction of former overseas worker Enrique “Eking” Fernandez III here.

Pelaez said the provincial board was prepared to support calls first made by Councilor George Goking to replace all the police officers in the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo).

He said he was planning on authoring a provincial board resolution to formalize and step up calls for the Cocpo to have a new director and members.

Councilor Goking earlier sought the replacement of all the members of the Cocpo, including Cariaga, citing the loss of public confidence on the city’s police force after members of an entire Cocpo unit were linked to Fernandez’s abduction outside Uptown Condotel in upper Carmen. The abduction was caught on closed-circuit television camera.

A Camp Alagar official revealed last week that Cariaga has already asked Camp Alagar to replace him.

On Wednesday, Fernandez’s mother Jean Theresa faced the public safety committee of the provincial board that expressed alarm over the October abduction. She appealed to authorities to find her son, dead or alive.

Pelaez said Misamis Oriental shares the peace and order concern with Cagayan de Oro, and the Fernandez abduction was a cause for worry in the province, too.

He also criticized the Cocpo over its failure to send a representative to the committee meeting despite Cariaga’s supposed assurance.

“Amo siya (Cariaga) nga gi-invite. Mi-confirm siya nga mo-attend sa atong meeting pero at eleventh hour, nagbalibad siya nga dili mo-attend,” Pelaez said.

He said Cariaga could have shed light on the Fernandez case, and answered many questions on public safety.

Pelaez said the committee was also dissatisfied with the answers of Chief Supt. Danilo Maligalig, Camp Alagar’s deputy director for administration. “Diskontinto kita kay wala man gyud matubag ni General Maligalig ang uban natong mga pangutana. Mas maayo gyud unta to si Cariaga, kay Cocpo policemen man ang na-accuse sa kidnapping,” he said.

Maligalig told the committee that Cariaga failed to come because Camp Crame officials were in town the day Pelaez called a committee meeting.