SP probe set on 'Berdugo' speech of Salcedo
Members of the Committee on Public Order and Safety met yesterday to firm up the process of investigation set to be conducted on the "Berdugo" speech of Board Member Jeneda Salcedo.
Albeit subject of an earlier "peace talk" initiated by top police hierarchy, the legislative probe is expected to continue with list of resource persons to be invited firmed up.
First District Board Member Richard Garin is committee chair and led yesterday's preliminary consultation.
Guidelines and the parameters of the probe was laid down though Garin and committee members opted to keep the details private.
Salcedo in her "Berdugo" speech lamented what she said was the "rape of the rights" in Northern Iloilo.
She also decried then what she termed was the 'Nazi rule' in her hometown, Sara, Iloilo.
This as questions were also raised on a top cop here purportedly a subordinate of Fifth District Representative Niel Tupas Jr. and not of Police Chief Superintendent Isagani Cuevas, Police Regional Office 6 Director.
In same privilege speech, Salcedo called for an immediate probe on what she said were "atrocities" perpetuated by Police Chief Inspector Leroy Rapiz. Rapiz is the director of the 608th Police Mobile Group that covers Northern Iloilo towns.
Entitled "Berdugo, The rape of our rights," Salcedo then began her speech with a joke cum reported reality in the north.
Like a cat caught "police way," beaten until the cat admits it is actually a tiger, Salcedo said Rapiz has seemingly been "emboldened by the patience of the good people of Sara.
As such. Rapiz allegedly "widened the scope of his illegal and terrorist acts..."
"He installed checkpoints in the various area with gusto and worse, without a proper signboard. In this acts, the provisions of the Bill of Rights are trampled mercilessly," Salcedo said. "Provocation is the name of the game for Rapiz."
Salcedo also decried what she said were the apparent selective checkpoints that "flagrantly violated" provisions on the Constitution.
"I do know also that by his failure to confer with the local authorities Rapiz has blatantly violated Republic Act No. 8551 providing for the Reform and Reorganization of the Philippine National Police….," she said. "Clearly, the Mobile Group headed by Rapiz is being used as a tool for political harassment. And so it follows, as surely as dusk descends, that to denigrate politics in a democracy is to instill nostalgia to the dictatorship."
Alongside the probe sought by Salcedo, she also called that the supposed acts of Rapiz be condemned, Rapiz be declared 'persona-non-grata' in the province "and request the PNP to include this in his 201 file."
Salcedo also urged the PNP to order Rapiz's immediate transfer out of Iloilo and eventually, order his dismissal from the service.