DISGRUNTLED COP
Cop turned rebel urged to come out

By Marites T. Launio

The Police Regional Office 6 is calling on policeman turned New People's Army member, SPO2 Joel Geollegue, to come out and air his grievances.

“We don't know where to start right now but I am calling for him to come out in the open and settle things out and with a warrant of arrest, we can help him in investigating what he is trying to prove and do something about it. He must bring the problem out in the open. He is not the only one frustrated with the government, but joining the hublag or the insurgents is not the answer to his problems,” Senior Superintendent Isagani Cuevas, Deputy Regional Director for Operations, aired during a press conference Friday last week.

Geollegue, a former deputy officer of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Negros Occidental, recently switched sides after a regional trial court convicted him and his brother Domingo of robbery in band. They were sentenced to four to six years in prison. He decided to join the ranks of the Maoist armed group because of what he perceives to be a lack of justice in the country.

The PRO 6, Cuevas added, considers Geollegue a 'bad egg.'

Cuevas said that they have received information that Geollegue has been involved in strafing incidents sometime 1999, renting out of guns, and connections with an armed group in Himamaylan in Negros Occidental.

Geollegue, in turn, has implicated SPO3 Alejandro Gimoteo and former Himamaylan City police director, retired Chief Inspector Eddie De Paula in the illegal drug trade in Negros Occidental. De Paula, Geollegue further accused, was the one really behind the robbery case for which he was convicted.

When asked what Camp Martin Delgado is planning to do with Geollegue, Cuevas said “there is no warrant of arrest as of now but if he is not willing to surrender himself and if his alleged group will do something (with force) against the government, we have no choice but to apply necessary force in return.”

He also added that even though Geollegue is not directly connected with them, he is still their concern because he still belongs to the PNP.