Getafe police chief relieved

By: Ador Vincent S. Mayol May 31,2016 - 04:12 PM

This is the area where suspected drug lord Rowen Secretaria and Dario Torremocia (encircled) were gunned down by the police. At left is the gazebo where 22- year-old John Jason Montes slept when police raided  Banacon Island early Saturday morning. (CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO)

This is the area where suspected drug lord Rowen Secretaria and Dario Torremocia (encircled) were gunned down by the police. At left is the gazebo where 22- year-old John Jason Montes slept when police raided Banacon Island early Saturday morning. (CDN PHOTO/ TONEE DESPOJO)

Police chief of Getafe town in Bohol has been ordered relieved for failing to arrest a notorious drug lord residing on one of the island-villages of the town.

The relief of Senior Insp. Marcelino Mejias would take effect on Wednesday although his replacement had yet to be named.

Chief Supt. Patrocinio Comendador Jr., police director for Central Visayas, said Mejias was ordered removed from his post for failing to arrest suspected drug lord Rowen “Yawa” Secretaria and his members.

Mejias would be sent to the Bohol Provincial Police Office where he would wait for his next assignment, said Comendador.

“For so long a time, Yawa’s group has been operating in his (Mejias) area of jurisdiction. I want to know why they were not arrested when the Getafe police office is just a 20-minute boat ride away from Banacon Island where Yawa was operating,” Comendador told reporters.

Sought for comment, Mejias explained that Secretaria didn’t stay on Banacon Island for a long time.

“To be honest, we had a hard time monitoring Secretaria. He seldom visited the island. And if he dropped by, his visit would not take long,” said Mejias in a phone interview.

He, however, said he would comply with the relief order issued by Comendador.

Secretaria and his two alleged cohorts—Dario Torremocha and John Jason Montes—were killed in a shootout with Cebu-based police operatives on Banacon Island last Saturday.

But a witness claimed that Montes, a 22-year-old native of Barangay Ermita in Cebu City, raised his hand in an apparent act of surrender but police operatives still shot him.

Montes’ mother on Monday requested the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to conduct an investigation on his son’s death.###

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TAGS: Banacon Island, bohol, Rowen “Yawa” Secretaria

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