Police intel officer sacked for harassing newsman

LUCENA CITY, Philippines – A police intelligence officer was relieved from his post after allegedly harassing a radio broadcaster while on official coverage at Camp Guillermo Nakar here last Wednesday.

Johnny Glorioso, 66, reporter of ABS-CBN-dzMM and publisher of local newspaper Ang Diaryo Natin, accused Superintendent Ramon Balauag, chief of the provincial police’s intelligence and investigation branch, of pushing him out of the room where communist rebel Apolonio Cuarto, who was arrested along with New People’s Army leader Tirso Alcantara, was being held.

Chief Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao, Calabarzon police director, has released an order relieving Balauag from his post in connection with Glorioso’s complaint.

Glorioso said he went to see Senior Superintendent Ericson Velazquez, Quezon police director, to get information on Alcantara’s capture but the latter was not around, so he decided to look for Balauag.

While waiting for Balauag, Glorioso said he noticed a man, who he later identified as Cuarto, handcuffed and blindfolded in a “glass room” beside Balauag’s.

Moments later, he said, Cuarto was ordered to sit down and sign a document. “I became curious upon seeing a blindfolded man being asked to sign a document, so I entered the room and approached him and asked him a few questions. I didn’t know that it was a restricted (area) and I didn’t see any ‘No Enter’ sign,” he said.

He said it was at that point when Balauag suddenly held him on the shoulder and pushed him away from the room while uttering derogatory words.

In a phone interview, Balauag belied Glorioso’s accusations, saying the latter was only creating stories to malign him. – With Ed Amoroso