TALIñO
Police Regional Office in Central Visays (PRO 7) Director Noli Taliño ordered the relief of Minglanilla Police Chief Insp. Florendo Fajardo after Minglanilla police forced persons, who were arrested due to illegal cockfighting, to sign documents that tagged them as drug ‘surrenderers’.
Taliño told members of the media about the order on Thursday morning in a press conference at his office.
Roger de Dios, director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau in Caraga Region (DENR-MGB 13), on Tuesday complained to Senior Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, PRO 7 deputy regional director for operations, that his son and more than 40 others were arrested and were made to sign a blank paper which they later realized listed them as surrenderers.
Minglanilla police officers raided a cockfight and allegedly arrested everyone who were there without confirming their involvement.
They were then brought to the police station and were made to sign a blank paper that was allegedly for the police station’s TokHang operations.
“It’s not right to force them to sign as surrenderers. If they want to file a case, then by all means file a case of illegal gambling,” De Dios said.
Fajardo admitted this to Lawas. The document was then torn by Minglanilla police infront of Lawas and 22 residents from Barangay Linao, Minglanilla on Wednesday.