By BEN BALCE
Staff member
and JOEY NACALABAN
Correspondent .
POLICE officials here are worried that the case filed by an ambushed Camp Alagar official against two police officers would drag the seat of the National Police in northern Mindanao and the entire organization itself into a major controversy.
Camp Alagar is confronted with a major public relations nightmare after Supt. Michael John Deloso, deputy chief of its Regional Police Strategic Management Unit, filed a complaint for frustrated murder against two members of the Regional Drug Enforcement Unit under the regional police office’s intelligence division.
The complaint was filed with a local prosecutor’s office two Thursdays ago in connection with the Nov. 20 broad daylight gun attack of Deloso near the capitol.
The respondents have been identified as SPO1 Ian Quitoriano and PO3 Elmer Arabe.
Deloso’s move has been widely seen as a sign that the wounded police official distrusts his own organization.
Camp Alagar spokesman Supt. Surki Sereñas called for “impartiality,” saying it would be unfair to drag the police organization into the controversy that the Deloso case has created.
Sereñas said the police should be allowed to conduct a “full, fair and impartial investigation” on the Deloso case.
“We earnestly call for impartiality by not dragging the entire police unit into the conflict,” said Sereñas.
He said the people involved in the case are individuals who are expected to answer for themselves in the court.
“This is a very sensitive issue. The case is already with the state prosecutors, and we have to avoid undue influence on the case. We have to let legal processes roll and wait until the court decides,” Sereñas said.
He reiterated that the National Police “has never and will never resort to using excessive force in our operations, much more resort to extrajudicial means in accomplishing our tasks and objectives.”
“We would like to assure the concerned parties that there will be no coverup or whitewash as we uncover the truth and seek justice. We will always stick to what is right and just,” Sereñas said. “Our way forward will be based on the decision of the court. We will not preempt the legal inquiry and will not speculate as to who is guilty or innocent.”
On Saturday, Sereñas said Deloso bypassed the special investigation task force created to look into the Nov. 20 ambush. He said Deloso should have informed the task group about his move.
But he said the police would still continue investigating the Deloso case, and would try to ask the wounded police superintendent to cooperate.
“If Deloso’s complaint has an iota of truth, then I can say there is a problem within the organization,” Seriñas said.
Cagayan de Oro City Police Office spokesman Supt. Mardy Hortillosa said the special investigation task group would secure copies of Deloso’s complaint from the prosecutor’s office.
Hortillosa said the respondents need to answer the complaints against them so as not to drag the name of the National Police organization into the controversy.
A former city police director in Region 10 earlier claimed that the attempt on the life of Deloso was part of an extrajudicial measure to rid the National Police of so-called “ninja cops.” The source, speaking on anonymity due to security reasons, said there were other police superintendents here in the list of “ninja cops” targeted for liquidation.
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