Tolentin: P1M aid for cops facing cases in court

The nearly 200 police officers, who are facing cases in court because of the police operations in the region, will now have a choice to choose their own private lawyer.

This developed after the business sector in Cebu donated P1 million to the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) to help these police officers.

Supt. Reyman Tolentin, PRO-7 public information officer, said in an interview on Monday that the P1 million cash aid would be allocated to help those police personnel facing charges, which were filed while conducting police operations in the region.

Tolentin said based on data from the Regional Intelligence Division in Central Visayas (RID-7), 193 police officers had cases in court and 283 cases were filed against these police officers.

Tolentin also said that the managements of private establishments in the business sector asked not to be identified as the donors because they only wanted to help the police in any way they could.

He also assured that these establishments who donated cash to help police officers would not be given special treatment with regard to serving the public.

He said that everyone regardless if they donated cash to help police or not would be treated fairly.

He also said that the donated cash would now allow police personnel to choose their own lawyer to help them in the cases they were facing.

He said that the two practicing lawyers of the PRO-7’s legal division would also help guide these police officers in choosing their own lawyers.