Police versus NBI - what next?

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Managing Editor ANTONIETA B. LOPEZ Business Editor ODETTE MONTELIBANO Desk Editor MARY ANN BARCELONA Advertising Coordinator RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete

ANDRES R. LEONARDIA Managing Director

Is there more than meets the eye in the revolting incident involving members of the Philippine National Police and agents of the National Bureau of Investigation that took place in the Negros Oriental town of Pamplona Sunday afternoon?

Initial reports that the DAILY STAR got from the NBI in Bacolod City said that seven men from its Bacolod Office had been hogtied and beaten up by about 15 policemen from the Negros Oriental Police Office in a resort there.

Bacolod NBI officials confirmed that the incident had indeed taken place, and that it had happened when their agents had gone to the place to serve an arrest warrant issued by a Cebu judge against the Korean national who owns and operates the Pamplona Golf and Country Club.

From the accounts, it could be discerned that the Negros Oriental Police did not believe the NBI agents were real ones, and that they suspected them to be persons with criminal intentions. The reports also said a high-ranking police officer led the 15 or so men in mauling the NBI men who were allegedly hit and kicked even while already trussed up on the floor.

Yesterday, the Negros Oriental police came up with their own explanation, and said they had already monitored earlier the presence of what, to them, were suspicious characters. So the report that a group had entered the clubhouse brought them rushing to the place where they, forthwith, dealt with the team from Bacolod whose claims of being government men themselves they did not believe.

The police also had their own version of what actually happened, and, furthermore, they had the staff of the country club vouching for them. What is intriguing about the different versions is that the NBI men had gone to the place to arrest a Korean on the strength of a complaint from another Korean. As earlier noted, there must be more than meets the eye in this case, which has done nothing at all to improve the image of our law enforcers that the government continues to declare it wants to accomplish.*