CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Police Office-Investigation and Detection Management Branch has recommended the filing of an administrative case against three former Theft and Robbery Section chiefs for their alleged use of an impounded car.
Chief Insp. Aileen Recla, IDMB chief, said Chief Insp. Noli Cernio, Senior Inspector Elisandro Quijano and Inspector William Alicaba violated the Philippine National Police’s External Operating Procedure 2013-001.
The order mandates that all impounded and recovered vehicles should be turned over to the nearest Highway Patrol Group within 48 hours from interception.
Violation of the order is punishable under National Police Commission Order 2007-001, which sets a penalty of suspension for not less than 31 days and not more than 60 days.
Recla said that they found out that Cernio, Quijano and Alicaba failed to turn over the vehicle to the HPG-7.
The HPG-7 and the TRS are both located in inside the Camp Sotero Cabahug compound located on Gorordo Avenue that is also the CCPO headquarters.
Recla said that Alicaba committed the “first evil’ when he used a green Mitsubishi Lancer that the TRS found abandoned at the corner of Molave and Apitong Streets in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City October last year.
Alicaba, who was the TRS chief that time, earlier said he really tried to locate the owner through print, television, and radio public service announcements but nobody showed up to claim the vehicle.
Quijano, who briefly replaced Alicaba as TRS chief before Cernio took over, allegedly informed Alicaba that he, too, would use the vehicle.
Cernio had said that he had the vehicle fixed, not for personal use but for TRS operations since the unit has no patrol vehicle of its own.
Recla said Quijano and Cernio were guilty of the same mistake Alicaba committed.
She said nobody actually executed affidavits supporting the allegation that Cernio also used the vehicle and that he brought it with him to the police station where he was transferred after his stint with the TRS.
But Cernio allegedly implicated himself in his affidavit after he mentioned that the car was repaired and then delivered to the Punta Police Station, his new place of assignment.
Recla said they already forwarded their recommendation for the filing of a less grave neglect of duty charge against Cernio, Quijano, and Alicaba to the Regional Investigation and Detection Management Division headed by Senior Superintendent Rey Lyndon Lawas.
Lawas is expected to designate a summary hearing officer who would try the charge and decide on its merit.
Meanwhle, Cernio, Quijano, and Alicaba are currently placed in a “holding area” without any post to prevent them from possibly influencing the outcome of the investigation. —Bryner L. Diaz/RHM (FREEMAN)