It was an April Fool’s Day bashing he will never forget. Senior Supt. Conrad Capa, who was sacked as head of Task Force Tugis a week after his men arrested fugitive real estate magnate Delfin Lee on March 6, was left out of the list of policemen honored at Camp Crame yesterday.
Instead of receiving a commendation for his accomplishment, Capa got a dressing down from President Aquino, the commander-in-chief of the 148,000-strong Philippine National Police.
Addressing the “Araw ng Parangal sa Kapulisan,” Mr. Aquino reminded the policemen, particularly senior PNP officials, to put the interest of the country above their own personal ambition.
“I really think he did the service a disservice. He put in a bad light the institution he served for so long in his life,” the President said in a mixture of English and Filipino.
Contacted on his mobile phone, Capa, now the deputy regional director for operations of the Police Regional Office-7, declined to comment on the President’s speech beyond a curt “it (the issue) has leveled up.”
Although dozens of policemen took part in the operation, only three members of the task force were recognized for their efforts in arresting Lee, the alleged brains behind an alleged P7-billion housing scam. Awarded the PNP Heroism Medal were Chief Insp. Rafael Lero, SPO1 Dante Cabalquinto and PO3 Eugene Amoyo.
Some members of the task force, which PNP Director General Alan Purisima created in July last year to go after the so-called “Big 5” high-profile fugitives, said they were saddened by the fate that had befallen their erstwhile superior.
They also expressed disappointment with the decision of the PNP to exclude Capa from the list of awardees and disregard his role in the capture of Lee.
“It’s unfortunate that the President spoke about teamwork in his speech, but he refused to acknowledge that we could not have pulled this through without (Capa’s) leadership,” said one of the group’s members, who asked not to be identified by name for fear of reprisal from Purisima.
“The arrest of Delfin Lee was a product of the efforts put together by the members of Task Force Tugis. It’s not just the work of three policemen,” another task force member said.
Capa earned the ire of Purisima after he came out in the media to protest the PNP chief’s decision to transfer him to the Central Visayas PNP command as deputy regional director for operations.
Purisima claimed the reassignment was a promotion for Capa, who had served as his chief intelligence officer when he was appointed regional director of the Central Luzon police and the National Capital Region police office from 2010 to 2012.
As in other armed services in the government, intelligence chiefs and comptrollers in the PNP are considered the most trusted staff members of a police chief at the municipal, provincial and regional levels.
In a previous interview, Capa said Purisima was “fooling” the public when he announced in a press briefing that his transfer was a reward, saying he would “rot” in his post before he could be promoted to chief superintendent, a star-rank equivalent to brigadier general in the military.
Purisima is known to be one of Mr. Aquino’s long-time friends in the government, having served as his personal security aide during the presidency of his mother, the late freedom icon Corazon Aquino.