39 cops charged for trainee’s death

Lawyer Cristopher Ruiz Sr. (left) files murder charges against 39 policemen at the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor’s Office. (CDN PHOTO/EDISON DELOS ANGELES)

The father of a rookie  policeman yesterday filed murder charges against 39 policemen for the death of his son, who was  electrocuted while training inside a police camp in Sibonga town, southern Cebu.

Chrisopher Ruiz Sr. decided to take legal action after investigating agencies  failed to file any case almost six months after his  23-year-old son died.

“Considering that enough time has already elapsed without a view to an end to this unfortunate incident, I cannot as a father, a seasoned investigator, and a lawyer, allow more time to pass by without doing anything to get to the bottom of this disaster that befell our family,” said Ruiz Sr. in his affidavit.

He asked the Cebu Provincial Prosecutors’ Office to hold  39 policemen accountable for his son’s death.

PO1 Christopher Jr. was electrocuted after  contact with a low-lying live wire near a chapel inside Camp Ceperino Genovia of the Regional Public Safety Battalion in Central Visayas (RPSB-7) at 10:25 a.m. last June 22 during a training exercise.

He was brought to the hospital but died two hours after.

Christopher, along with other aspiring police officers of Batch Shepherd, had just graduated from the Regional Training School in Consolacion town last June 16.

It was the first day of a training program on internal security operations when the  incident happened.

Ruiz Sr. said he couldn’t understand why  a live wire that dangled at about  knee’s height from the ground was there.

“It was not a coincidence that a portion of the killer wire perched at a low-lying branch of a pagatpat tree when a higher branch could have been  better and safer,” he said.

“Clearly, there was a design in everything that had happened though the motive is not clear.  Apparently, every single one was in on the plan,” he added.

Ruiz Sr. said he believed there were people inside an enclosed room behind the altar where the wire was plugged into an outlet.

He said a sufficient length of  wire was released in such a way  that it killed his son.

“This fact about an additional length of wire inside the enclosed room is made apparent when the same was bared when Regional Investigators and detective management division investigators of the PRO7 photographed it lying flat on the ground a few hours after the accident had happened,” he said.

Ruiz Sr. said the plan and its execution was so “hideous and treacherous that it offered the victim no chance—not any, at all—to escape,” he said.

He said he gathered documentary evidence and studied the testimonies of witnesses to come up with his conclusion that  his son’s death involved a conspiracy.

Ruiz Sr. earlier asked the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct its own investigation.  However, the reassignment of Head Agent Rennan Augustus Oliva to Bohol caused delays in the investigation.

“My extensive training  and years of experience have given me sufficient skills for solving problems from the plainly ridiculous to the exhaustingly mind-boggling and for getting to the bottom of things,” Ruiz Sr. said.

Named respondents in his complaint were Senior Supr. Clifford Gairanod, battalion commander of the Regional Public Safety Battalion-7, Supt Jonathan Pineda, Chief Insp. Clark Arriola, Senior Insp. Flaviano Atuel Jr., Inspt. Neon Francis Alvarez, Insp. Sigmund Freud Cruz, and 33 police officers.