The police uniform has once again been tarnished by a reprehensible incident involving one who wears it. Police Staff Sergeant Jonel Nuezca shot dead two civilians, Sonya Gregorio and her son Frank Anthony Gregorio, in Tarlac over what reportedly were private matters of disagreement. Video footage showed that the two victims were unarmed when they were killed. Nuezca has surrendered and is now facing two counts of murder.
To the victims’ families, I speak on behalf of all Philippine National Police (PNP) officers in offering my deepest sympathies and my sincerest apologies for the despicable crimes committed by someone who misused a police firearm and who grossly violated his duty as a peace officer. In order to remove doubts on the PNP’s impartiality, I have invited the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to take the lead in gathering evidence and in securing witnesses’ statements. I personally guarantee that all the resources of the PNP will be utilized to help the NBI, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the judiciary in obtaining fair, transparent, and speedy justice.
To the witnesses, I commend your willingness to testify in order to help put the accused permanently behind bars. I praise especially the witnesses who bravely took videos of the incident. Because of your courage, we have the strongest evidence possible to secure a conviction. The PNP will facilitate your admission into the DOJ’s Witness Protection Program at the earliest possible time. In the meantime, I give my assurance that the PNP will fully secure you and your families, and provide all the assistance you will need in order to testify without fear.
To the Filipino people, I appeal for your help in cleansing the ranks of our police force of bad elements. Report and expose any police officer who commits the slightest to the gravest offenses. By all means, use your phone cameras, CCTV videos, and audio listening devices to record and report those who beat the red light, drive in counterflow traffic, ride motorcycles without helmets, commit physical harm against arrested persons, plant evidence to simulate crimes, and kill on fake “nanlaban” charges.
To my fellow police officers, I know that many of you are hurting because this wrongdoing by a single “bad egg” within our beloved PNP has generated public condemnation against our entire organization. We find it unfair that the offense of one is being attributed as the wrongful act of all of us. However, we must never attribute the unfairness to the public, because the Filipino people whom we have a constitutional duty to protect have every right to expect protection — not from some of us, not from many of us, not even from 99 percent of us, but from all of us in the PNP. We collectively fail in our mandate if, instead of laying our lives for our countrymen, a scalawag within our ranks slays the life of an innocent citizen. The duty to protect our people is not an individual obligation but a collective, indivisible, and solidary responsibility of the entire PNP organization.
We must not resent the criticisms by a public which has every right to complain for the violation of the trust they repose in us and for the very serious disturbance of public peace. Instead, we must join the public in condemning and exposing the bad eggs in our organization. If we feel any sense of unfairness, we must attribute our grievance against the scoundrels within our ranks who prevent us from fulfilling our collective duty to protect our people. These rogues in uniform are worse compared to ordinary criminals, because they do not only kill people, but also destroy the PNP and bring ruin to our society.
The Filipino people entrust their lives, liberty, and property to the Philippine National Police. We as police officers must earn back the faith of our countrymen because, absent their trust, we are reduced to and become an institution of fear, no different from the criminal organizations we have sworn to fight.
PGen. Debold Sinas chief Philippine National Police
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