Bato vows to ‘hang’ cops who tampered with PHAU attendance sheets

BATO

“PANG bitayon tamong polisa mo. Bantay lang mo.”

(I will hang those policemen upside. Be warned)

This was the threat of Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa to police officers in Camp Crame who might have tampered with the attendance sheets to make it appear that rogue policemen confined at the PNP headquarters were recorded as “present” even if they were elsewhere.

Dela Rosa said he has ordered an investigation into this matter following reports that slain Cebu policeman PO3 Ryan Martus Quiamco was listed present in the Camp Crame attendance sheet on the day that the latter was killed in a shootout with the Regional Intelligence Division in Central Visayas (RID-7) anti-drug operatives in Barangay Pooc, Talisay City on Áug. 15.

“(I called the attention of the) director for Police Personnel and Records Management to investigate those in charge in accounting for the personnel under PHAU (Police Holding and Accounting Unit),” Dela Rosa said.

Quiamco used to be assigned in the Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) team of the Cebu Provincial Police Office but was placed on floating status, or was sent to PHAU, after his name was included in the list of alleged drug coddlers made public by President Rodrigo Duterte last year.

Dela Rosa said he would want to know why Quiamco was in Cebu when the latter supposed to be reporting in Camp Crame.

Quiamco and five-month pregnant wife Rizalyn were killed in what the police said was a shootout during a buy-bust operation. Both Quiamco and his wife were allegedly high-value targets under the drug watch list of RID-7.

Senior Supt. Jonathan Cabal, the chief of RID-7, said they received reports that Quiamco had “signed” the attendance sheet even if he were in Cebu, allegedly still running his drug trade along with his wife Rizalyn.

Dela Rosa said he would now be looking at the record of other policemen under PHAU who might also be made to appear as if they were present in Camp Crame even if they were not.

Dela Rosa said it was likely that policemen supposedly guarding those cops under PHAU have been bribed to alter the attendance sheets.

“Bantay lang mo ma-establish na nako. Kami dinhi nagpakamatay sa internal cleansing unya kamo binuangan rako ninyo. Ma-validate gani nako nga nagbayaran mo pangbitayon tamong polisa mo,” Dela Rosa said.

(Those policemen should watch out once I have established if there is truth to this allegation. We are doing our best to do internal cleansing but these people are making a fool out of me. If I can validate that they were paid, I will personally hang those cops.)

Dela Rosa stressed the campaign against drugs remained unrelenting, despite setbacks involving scalawags in uniform.

In fact, he said, he has given to PNP intelligence division the new list of drug personalities that President Duterte gave to him last week.

He said that the validation of this list was still on going, with the help of other government agencies like the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP),

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).