Torture probers to summon 7 police recruits

MANILA, Philippines - At least seven police recruits were assigned at the Asuncion police detachment at the time a robbery suspect was allegedly tortured by a man believed to be Senior Inspector Joselito Binayug.

Task Force Asuncion, which is investigating the torture on robbery suspect Darius Evangelista, are poised to summon the seven police recruits to determine whether they have something to do with the taking of the video.

Superintendent Matthew Perlas Baccay said the seven police recruits are still detailed at the Manila Police District.

Baccay said the MPD must summon the police recruits and place them under investigation in the Task Force Asuncion’s effort to identify the video taker. “It should be the MPD who would summon them and determine whether they have a hand in the taking of the video. They would forward to us the progress of their investigation for us to validate,” said Baccay in an interview.

The Pinagpala class of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) have just finished undergoing six months training when they were assigned for on-the-job training at the five police districts in Metro Manila from February to July this year.

Sources noted that Binayug could be boasting to the police recruits whom he allowed to take the video through their cellular phones. The video also showed another person inside the detachment holding a cellphone.

The video was uploaded to the Internet and it triggered worldwide condemnation.

During a Senate hearing last week, however, Binayug denied he was the man in the video. But Chief Superintendent Roberto Rongavilla, MPD officer-in-charge and Task Force Asuncion head, said that they have witnesses showing that the man in the video was Binayug.

The Task Force Asuncion filed violation of the Anti-Torture Act of 2009 against Binayug and eight other Manila policemen, including two station commanders.

But at least 17 MPD policemen being investigated for the torture were tight-lipped on who among them took the video footage.

Earlier, Rongavilla warned that if the video taker is also a policeman, he would be sanctioned for not acting accordingly on the acts of Binayug.