CamSur governor cries foul on being stripped of police power

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines – Camarines Sur Gov. Miguel Luis Villafuerte said he was denied due process when the National Police Commission  (Napolcom) stripped him of authority over the local police for allegedly refusing to cooperate in the probe of a shooting incident last March 22 that left four small-scale miners dead in Caramoan town.

“The removal of my police power was arbitrary, baseless and was done without due process,” Villafuerte posted on Facebook last Friday afternoon.

The Napolcom, in a June 9 order, cited Villafuerte’s “unwarranted refusal” to cooperate in the police investigation, his “evident” coddling of individuals carrying high-powered firearms, and his “deliberate refusal” to provide information to the police.

Implicated in the killing of the four small-scale miners were members of Sagip Kalikasan Task Force, which Villafuerte’s father, former governor Luis Raymond Villafuerte, formed in September 2004 to monitor quarrying activities, collect fees and taxes through checkpoints, and charge illegal quarrying operators.

Two days after the shooting incident, Senior Superintendent Arnold Albis, Camarines Sur police director, wrote the young Villafuerte asking for documents that would help in the investigation, the Napolcom said.

Without any formal investigation and without responding to Albis’ request, Villafuerte, according to Napolcom, cleared the task force, civilian security unit and provincial guards in the miners’ killing

Villafuerte said the authorities’ failure to solve the Caramoan killing “should be attributed to the local police force and not me.”  

He said the case is now in the courts and the provincial prosecutor ruled that there was no probable cause to file charges against personnel of the task force.

He said the report submitted by Bicol police director Victor Deona, which the Napolcom used as basis for its action against him, was unfounded and speculative.

He alleged that Deona’s recommendation “was in retaliation because of the cases we filed against him in the Office of the Ombudsman for grave abuse of authority, oppression, grave misconduct, coercion, obstruction of justice, and malicious mischief.”

Deona, according to Villafuerte, should be investigated for “tolerating and conniving with illegal gold mining operators and large-scale illegal quarrying operators” in Caramoan.

Meanwhile, Villafuerte also took issue on the delayed renewal of firearm licenses and permits of provincial guards, saying this is “not an act inimical to national security” and is “not a valid ground” for the removal of his police authority.

He also dismissed as “baseless” the allegation that firearms were issued to members of the Sagip Kalikasan Task Force.