Iloilo lawmaker apologizes for mauling police officer
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2018 06:00:42 +0000
ILOILO 1st District Rep. Richard Garin apologized for mauling a municipal police officer in his town last Wednesday.
“I reiterate my apologies for my actions, which I take full responsibility for. But I would like to clarify that my actions are not directed to the Philippine National Police (PNP) as an institution, or against its officers and personnel,” Garin said in a statement mostly read in Hiligaynon.
PNP-Western Visayas reported that Garin disarmed, handcuffed, slapped, and spat at Police Officer (PO) 3 Federico Macaya Jr. while his father, Guimbal Mayor Oscar Garin, held the officer at gunpoint in a town plaza on Wednesday morning.
Referring to Macaya, Garin said that his actions were “a mere display of extreme frustration” towards one single PNP officer whom he perceived to have “committed a great disservice to the people of Guimbal.”
Chief Supt. John Bulalacao, PNP-Western Visayas regional director, accepted the apology but reiterated that this would not stop the institution from filing a grave coercion complaint against Garin and a grave threat charge against his father.
“[Garin] asked for an apology. I told him that I accept his apology but it doesn’t mean that we won’t go with our investigation,” Bulalacao said.
Garin said that the incident stemmed from his intention to file charges against a Sangguniang Bayan member’s son, Virgil Gegato, who allegedly struck a bottle of beer against another man, identified as Noel Gicana.
Macaya, who was then assigned to the case of the two men, allegedly asked Gicana to drop the case.
This led to the intervention of the Garins who believed that Macaya’s move was “a betrayal of public trust and abuse of his position.”
“What police did was, to me, is a betrayal of public trust and abuse of his position. What [Macaya] did was clearly against the policy of the PNP not to move for the settlement of the case on the victim’s camp in a criminal case,” the lawmaker said.
The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) said that the incident may serve as a ground for the House of Representatives to impose sanctions on Garin. GLEE JALEA
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