2 cops face raps for Crame shootout

Two ranking police officers will face administrative charges over the hostage drama fiasco at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters at Camp Crame where three policemen were killed by a lone Abu Sayyaf gunman last Oct. 7.

A ranking official of the PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) revealed yesterday that administrative charges have been recommended for Senior Superintendent Rosueto Ricaforte and Inspector Arnold Palomo in the wake of the latest security foul-up.

Three others were wounded during the three-hour standoff inside Camp Crame.

It will be virtually a slap on the wrist for the two police officers who allegedly failed to implement the necessary security measures in handling high-profile detainees under their custody.

The source said Palomo and Ricarforte will only be "liable for less grave misconduct and administrative offense," without elaborating further.

Ricarforte was relieved as chief of the CIDG’s Anti-Crime and Businessmen Concerns Division shortly after a detained Abu Sayyaf bandit shot dead three police officers and wounded three others before he was shot dead when he was cornered in a restroom of the detention center.

In a bid to escape, Buyungan Bungkak, held for the bombing of a pubhouse that left several people including a US serviceman dead last year, reportedly grabbed an M-16 rifle from a guard he took hostage.

The police hostage was shot in the head while two officers who came to his aid were killed as a rescue team stormed the building in the compound inside Camp Crame where Bungkak was detained.

Initial results of the investigation as ordered by PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. on the incident showed Palomo was not manning his post as duty officer when Bungkak made his bid to escape.

Palomo has not surfaced since the incident, CIDG sources said. Ricaforte, on the other hand, is being punished for command responsibility.

Investigation also showed Bungkak and three other detainees were ordered out of their detention cells to work as janitors and clean up the offices.

This was contrary to the earlier statements made by CIDG chief Director Eduardo Matillano who took a leave of absence following the incident.

Matillano said the detainees were allowed out of their cells for their daily morning exercises. It has been the usual practice for most police precincts to utilize detainees as janitors to clean up their offices and premises.

The PNP has yet to make public the official results of the investigation pending the announcement of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina Jr.

The investigation report was submitted to the National Police Commission (Napolcom) Friday, sources said.

The report was submitted at the same time President Arroyo vowed to institute "greater discipline and proactive measures" in the PNP.

Malacañang has floated the possibility of relieving Ebdane from his post after the hostage-taking incident.

The jail shootout last week was another embarrassment for the PNP and the government. Last July 14, confessed Indonesian Jemaah Islamiyah bomber Fathur Roman al-Ghozi escaped from the same police compound, along with two other Abu Sayyaf suspects. Al-Ghozi remains at large.

The hostage incident also heightened security concerns ahead of a planned Oct. 18 visit to the country by US President George W. Bush, and added to investors’ worries about market stability.