TWO police officers who allegedly facilitated unauthorized negotiations with the families of the missing sabungeros (cockfight enthusiasts) have been relieved from duty, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said Thursday.
On Wednesday, families of the missing sabungeros trooped to the National Police Commission (Napolcom) to report that a police lieutenant and a police major assisted them to meet with detained police officers involved in the case at the PNP Custodial Center.
The reason for the meeting was that the implicated officers tried to convince the families that they had no involvement in the case. An administrative case was thereafter lodged by the families against the two police officers before the Napolcom.
The complainants identified the police lieutenant as Highway Patrol Group (HPG) spokesman Lt. Nadame Malang and the police major as PNP Custodial Center officer-in-charge Maj. Reynaldo Pañebe Jr.
The HPG said that the special order for the two officers' relief was effective May 20 along with the filing of an incident report from the Headquarters Support Service (HSS).
In a press briefing in Camp Crame on Thursday, HPG director BGen. Rommel Batangan said Malang had been asked by three individuals to take them inside the PNP headquarters and to the custodial center.
Meanwhile, HSS director BGen. Manuel Abrugena said Pañebe defended that he was unaware that the individuals taken to the custodial center were the complainants of the sabungeros case.
Abrugena said they have yet to secure closed-circuit television footage of the PNP Custodial Center.
PNP spokesman BGen. Randulf Tuaño said that the officers' relief does not constitute guilt, but compliance with standard operating procedure of investigation within their ranks.
“We did their immediate relief so that it wouldn’t affect the ongoing investigation, both criminal and administrative, of the two offices we mentioned,” he said.
The supposed secret meeting with the detained police officers was said to be part of an agreement being negotiated by Caroline Cruz, lawyer of fugitive gambling tycoon Charlie “Atong Ang,” with the families of the missing sabungeros.
From the 34 initial cases, only five were left attending court hearings as most of the families are allegedly now under the payroll of the billionaire gambling lord in exchange for their nonappearance in court hearings and dropping of cases against him.
A complainant alleged that the nonparticipating families are now getting P40,000 monthly allowance from Ang along with regular outings, travels and even entry into casinos.
The Napolcom ordered an investigation of the allegations.
Meanwhile, Cruz, Ang’s legal counsel and his firm's Pitmaster Foundation executive director, said that she personally gave families of the missing sabungeros money “but as a form of support for their causes.” “I did not ask for anything in return for the financial support that I gave them. They signed nothing that would, in any way, be useful in the case,” Cruz told The Manila Times, noting her conscience is clean because she has nothing to hide.
She added that she is willing to answer all allegations against her at a proper legal forum.
Cruz challenged her accusers to make public the audio recording of their conversations.
She said the first meeting took place at her Mandaluyong City office on April 20, adding she gave the representatives of the families P20,000 each, not P40,000 as they have claimed.
“I was surprised by their visit, but I welcomed them. It was a cordial meeting, if I am to describe it,” Cruz added.
She recalled that the group was led by one Diane Loyola, a victim’s relative, who told her that they were meeting her in the hope that she could lead them to the truth about the case.
“I told them I am also in search of the truth, and honestly, that is the only reason why I allowed that unscheduled meeting to happen,” Cruz said.
Contrary to the group’s statement, she maintained that she did not call them to arrange the meeting, noting that in the course of her conversation with the group, she was surprised to learn that they didn’t know she was initially among those charged in the case.
“I was stunned by their reply when I offered that information to them. But since I also seek the truth, I became more convinced to set another meeting,” Cruz added.
She said she chose Edsa Shangri-La, located also in the city, to be the venue of their succeeding meeting because it’s a public place. She denied claims by the group that she arranged the trips of other members of the victims’ families to casinos and to a resort in Iba, Zambales.
Cruz said that as a lawyer, she knew that the victims’ relatives were not necessarily parties to the case.
“To ask for their recantation is not something that a sensible lawyer would even ask at this point. They are not even witnesses to the case, to begin with,” she said.
Cruz belied the group’s assertion that the money she gave was meant to silence them.
“When almost all of them started to talk about how difficult their lives are now after what they’ve been through, that’s the time when I offered them help without asking for anything,” she said.
Cruz said she was surprised when they were showing P1,000 bills supposedly contained in the brown envelope when she could remember giving them money all in P500-peso denominations.
Asked about the group’s decision to reveal their meeting in public, Cruz said: “It could be part of continuing efforts by self-proclaimed whistleblower Julie Patidongan to muddle the case.”
