The Dumanjug police chief is on his way out after incurring the ire of Mayor Nelson Garcia who suspects the police chief is siding with his political foe, Vice Mayor Efren Gica.
Supt. Arvi Arbuis confirmed that the Cebu provincial police yesterday submitted a list of new candidates for police chief to Mayor Garcia.
The pressure has built up since the Dec. 4 strafing and grenade lobbing that damaged a parked vehicle of Gica’s runningmate, Rainerio Asentista of the Liberal Party.
“Wa gyod ta’y mahimo ana, sir. Kaming mga chief of police, come and go ra man gyod mi, wala mi security of tenure. In fact, ako nang gihinayhinayan og usab akong designation, dili na acting chief of police kon dili due for relief nga chief of police (We can’t do anything about it. We police chiefs come and go. We have no security of tenure. In fact I am slowly changing my designation.
I’m not an acting police chief but rather a due for relief chief of police),” Arbuis said in a radio dyLA interview.
Arbuis said he was called to the mayor’s office immediately after yesterday’s dawn shootout which resulted in the death of a barngay councilman identified with the mayor
“Iya ko’ng gi-lecturan. He asked me to define what a hot pursuit operation is,” Arbuis said.
Arbuis said he tried to explain that the dawn shooting was a continuing operation after the Dec. 4 strafing of the vehicle in barangay Masa.
After Arbuis excused himself to answe a phone call from the provincial police office.
Mayor Garcia said he didn’t like the attitude of the police chief because Arbuis didn’t return to his office and submit an official report of the shooting as he had promised.
The mayor accused Arbuis of allowing himself to be used by Gica to advance his political agenda.
Mayor Garcia said the police can’t call their operation a hot pursuit since the strafing happened five days earlier.
Garcia earlier scoffed at the the Dec. 4 strafing as an incident “staged” by the vice mayor to start trouble.