MANILA, Philippines — The chief of the Navotas City police has been sacked from his post after the Internal Affairs Services of the Philippine National Police found that he gave orders to conceal the involvement of 11 police officers over the fatal shooting of a minor.
The PNP-IAS said in a memorandum on Wednesday that Navotas police chief Allan Umipig "instructed the team leader of the operatives to exclude from their reports 11 police officers who were also involved in the fatal shooting of the 17-year-old Jerhode Jemboy Baltazar."
Umipig will be facing charges of dishonesty and command responsibility, while the 11 policemen who were “initially concealed” will be charged for “abandoning the victim and other possible violations of police operational procedures," according to the PNP.
This development comes two weeks after police shot Baltazar dead on August 2 in what they describe as a case of mistaken identity.
Six Navotas cops, including the ground commander and assistant commander of Navotas City Police Station Substation 4, were charged with criminal and administrative cases over the incident. Human rights lawyers, however, have said that there is enough evidence supporting the filing of murder charges against the police.
Umipig earlier admitted that cops under him had committed a "lapse in judgement.”
On Monday, the National Capital Region Police Office said that one of the cops was not able to record footage from the operation because the body camera he was wearing ran out of batteries.
Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos has ordered a review of the standard operating procedures followed by the country’s police force following the killing of the Navotas teen.
According to the PNP Police Operational Procedure Manual, police personnel should only use lethal or deadly approaches as a last resort.