Jailed ‘drug lord’ probed for threats against police chief, his family

A jailed “drug lord” is being investigated after he allegedly posted threats on Facebook against Police Major Alejandro Batobalonos, Integrity Monitoring and Enhancement Group Visayas Field Unit (IMEG-VFU), whom he blamed for the death of her live-in partner. | CDN Digital stock photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — A “drug lord”, who is in the Cebu City Jail, is being investigated after he allegedly threatened the  police chief of the Integrity Monitoring and Enhancement Group Visayas Field Unit (IMEG-VFU).

Police Major Alejandro Batobalonos, IMEG-VFU chief, said that the drug lord had allegedly blamed him and accused him as the person, who was allegedly behind the death of Ritchie Nepomuceno, the vital witness in the robbery and extortion cases against 11 police officers, who were then assigned at the Sawang Calero Police Station.

Aside from the robbery and extortion cases that she filed, Nepomuceno had also filed a rape case against another Sawang Calero policeman — Police Staff Sergeant Celso Colita, who allegedly killed himself a few hours after Nepomuceno was gunned down.

Batobalonos, for his part, has vehemently denied the allegations of the “drug lord.”

The IMEG-VFU chief said that the “drug lord” was allegedly the live-in partner of Nepomuceno after she broke up with her husband.

He said that this was what Nepomuceno told him during his talk with her when Nepomuceno was still alive.

Threat of ‘drug lord’ on FB

In a phone interview, Batobalonos said that the threat was posted as a comment of a news article last April 24 on Facebook.

He said that the post was allegedly about him being tagged as the person allegedly behind the killing of Nepomuceno, which Batobalonos had vehemently denied and claimed as untrue.

Batobalonos said that they traced the Facebook account where the threat was posted to that of Nepomuceno’s alleged live-in partner, who is in jail for illegal drug charges.

“Sa una pa giingnan na nako na ang warden nga naay piniriso nga sigeg threat nako. Mao kuno ilang imbestigahan kay akong pangutana, nganong naka Facebook man na siya,nga naa man sya sulod sa jail,” Batobalonos said.

(I have informed the jail warden about the inmate who allegedly kept on threatening me. They were investigating this because I asked them how come he had access to Facebook when he is inside the jail.)

Batobalonos said that he had already taken precautions and also to his family, whom he claimed was also threatened by the inmate.

“Ang pamilya nako, iya pa ganing giapil,” he added.

(He also even threatened my family.)

He also said that he would file appropriate charges against the inmate after the investigation against him would be completed.

PRO-7 director’s action

Police Brigadier General Ronnie Montejo, Police Regional Office (PRO)-7 chief, also said that they would be coordinating with the city jail to investigate on why the drug lord was able to post a threat in social media against Batobalonos. 

“Ato sad tan-awon kung directly gikan ba niya (drug lord) ang post or another person,”said Montejo.

(We will check if this came directly from him [the drug lord] or the post came from another person.)

Montejo said they received reports regarding the threats of Batobalonos and that they were investigating these threats.

Montejo also said that Nepomuceno broke up with her husband and had lived with the person who was caught for violation of illegal drugs and was now inside the city jail.

He also said that they would get the statement of the drug lord because perhaps they could get some leads on the killing of Nepomucemo.

For the 11 Sawang Calero police officers, who are facing administrative charges, Montejo said that they remained under camp restriction.

He also said that they were waiting for the prosecutor’s decision on their criminal charges given that the vital witness was already dead.

“Ato nang gi [forward] sa Regional Internal Affairs Service (RIAS-7) ang sa ilang admin case. Ang sa criminal case nila, atong huwaton kung unsa ang decision sa prosecutor kung iya ba nga ipasaka ngadto sa proper court or depende,” Montejo said.

(We had forwarded the admin case to the Regional Internal Affairs Service [RIAS-7]. For the criminal case, we will wait for the decision of the prosecutor if this would be raised to the proper court.)

/dbs

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