PNP probes liability of CDO police chief in bistro blast

MANILA, Philippines - The police chief of Cagayan de Oro City may lose his post for failing to prevent the bomb attack in a bistro that left eight people dead and 46 others wounded last Friday.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Alan Purisima said they were still determining the liability of Senior Superintendent Graciano Mijares, Cagayan de Oro police chief, and the appropriate action to be taken against him.

“At present, we are studying the responsibility of the chief of police and the failure (of the intelligence unit) to gather information… We are not yet through, we are evaluating it,” Purisima said.

A bomb of still unknown type went off at Kyla’s Bistro in Cagayan de Oro last Friday.

Purisima said if the blast at the bistro was a terrorist act, the local police and local intelligence network should have worked with the community.

He said the local police should have employed the three-tiered defense plan – intensified intelligence monitoring, target hardening, and damage mitigation – to prevent such an attack.

Purisima said target hardening should have been employed, as there had been rallies in the area after some stores closed down.

“He (Mijares) should have some target hardening efforts, but apparently did not consider (these) considering that previous to (the blast), there were rallies because of closure of some stores in the area. So he should be on alert,” he added.

Purisima admitted there were lapses that allowed the bombers to plant the explosive, saying the local police has become complacent since no major untoward incidents have occurred in the past few months.

“We are just looking at hindsight but these lapses should be used as lesson by other policemen,” he said.

Although police were following up some leads, Purisima said there were no significant developments in the investigation into the blast. 

He said probers could not yet even ascertain the number of bombers. 

“Our investigators are still pursuing leads. First, we are conducting ‘victimology’ or checking the profiles of the victims to check whether some (people) wanted them killed. We are still checking the signature of the bomb. We are still trying to answer all these questions,” he said.

Purisima, meanwhile, clarified that Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) had completed processing the crime scene when it was turned over to investigators, meaning the blast site was safe to be cleaned up.

“If we will look into the case, the processing of the crime scene started at 11 p.m. and lasted until before lunch the following day. The processing of the crime scene had been completed and the SOCO turned it over to the investigators,” he said.

He said it was necessary to clean up the blast site to remove all traces of a terrorist attack.

“In any terrorist activity, we need to remove the satisfaction of terrorists to see the fruit of their terrorist attack,” he said, adding that investigators had taken sufficient photos of the crime scene.

Purisima said police need the cooperation of the public to identify, arrest and prosecute the bombers. “We need everybody to be involved for us to prevent crimes. If you saw someone placed a bag and immediately left, call the attention of the authorities to clear the area (and) thus prevent the loss of lives,” he added.

Senators Loren Legarda and Ramon Revilla Jr. expressed hope yesterday that the blast was not connected with the peace process in Mindanao. – With Christina Mendez