Gayotin rebuts new complaint against Pardo cop's 'neglect'

After last month's complaint against the Pardo Police's omission over a pickpocket alarm was recently dropped, another man yesterday threatened to file charges against a policeman of the same station for alleged neglect over his request for assistance.

But if the City Police did an investigation of the former case, this time City Police acting director, Supt. Melvin Gayotin, defended the policeman's action.

The latest allegation came from Edgardo Briones, 44, of barangay San Nicolas Proper, who threatened to charge PO1 Glenn Aquino of the Pardo Police at the Ombudsman-Visayas for alleged neglect of duty.

Briones yesterday said Aquino failed to act on his request to serve an arrest warrant against Briones' cousin Mario Earl Alegarbes.

Briones said he sued Alegarbes last year for oral defamation and Judge Gil Acosta, of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities-branch 3, issued a warrant last January 17 against Alegarbes and recommended a P500 bail bond.

When he went to the Pardo Police last Friday evening for help in serving the warrant, Briones said that Aquino allegedly refused to act on his request and countered that the arrest could not be done at the time because no court is open on weekends.

Briones said he could not understand why Aquino denied him the help he needed, adding that he would sue the policeman for such neglect.

However Gayotin defended the action of Aquino. He said the police force, a few years back, received a memorandum from the court ordering the police not to serve arrest warrants on weekends unless extremely necessary or the crime committed is serious.

For lesser crimes, such as oral defamation with P500 bail, "Naa tay memorandum nga nadawat ana kaniadto nga...gidili ang pag-serve sa warrant of arrest sa weekends," Gayotin explained.

He said it would be inhuman for the police to lock up a person for two days just because there is no court that process the bail bond for temporary liberty.

Some complainants just wanted to make the people they had accused languish in jail on weekends, said Gayotin.

The Briones complaint was the second against a policeman detailed at the Pardo Police station. The first one was when a female pickpocket victim complained that SPO4 Jaime Repompo allegedly refused to help her request for help to arrest the perpetrator.

The victim, Rhodelia Caretero, sent her complaint to Malacañang, which in turn ordered the PNP to investigate the Pardo Police force. But in the course of the investigation, Caretero did not pursue the case anymore and her complaint was eventually dropped. - Edwin Ian Melecio