Cuevas vows no white wash in probe of training instructors
BACOLOD CITY – Chief Supt. Isagani Cuevas, Police Regional Office (PRO) 6 Director, vowed to give justice to 51 neophyte cops allegedly maltreated by fellow police officers during the 45-day counter-insurgency operations training at Camp Aniceto Lacson in Victorias City, Negros Occidental.
"I will protect them from any possible future retaliation from the culprits," Cuevas stressed.
Cuevas said the findings of maltreatment was confirmed after he received reports from PNP medical team, as per instruction from him prior to the training, to conduct physical examination.
"We want our police officers trained very well but we discourage this kind of barbaric doings," Cuevas added.
Cuevas made it clear to the public that the initiative of sending a medical team purposely to conduct physical examination was a policy of his office.
Supt. Napoleon Riolo led a team of police doctors and nurses from PRO 6, composed of Chief Inspector Katherine Gebusion, Senior Inspectors Dexter Lopez and Jessica Descallar, who conducted physical and medical examinations on the 242 scout trainees.
Cuevas already have the names of the ten police officers who are subject of the complaint and gave assurance that there will be no whitewash in their investigations.
"Administrative and criminal charges will be filed against those involved in the alleged 'hazing', if evidence warrants," Cuevas assured.
Police records showed that of the 51 complainant cops, 22 are females and 29 are males. They form part of the 242 trainees.
Chief Inspector Katherine Gebusion, chief of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office Health Service Unit, reported that one police-trainee has hematoma and contusions in the thigh, upper buttocks and hands.
The trainee cops also disclosed that they were hit with a stick in their hands and fingers, struck with plastic pipes, wood or bamboo in their buttocks, legs and thighs by their instructors, as punishment for minor infractions they had committed during the training.
A female cop also suffered fractured finger becauase of the alleged maltreatment.
The alleged maltreatment took place at the 6th RMG headquarters, while the Training Director, Supt. Remus Zacharias Canieso, was in Boracay for a special mission on Nov. 1.
Meanwhile, Supt. Canieso said he has already relieved a tactical officer and a training instructor from their positions and placed them under restriction at their headquarters pending investigation.
Few days after the start of the Scout training, Police Officer 1 Tristan Lopez, one of the 242 police trainees, died, allegedly due to heat stroke. The parents and relatives of Lopez sought the help of the National Bureau of Investigation to check whether there was foul play in the death of their kin.