The issue over the relief of Senior Inspector Santiago Rapiz as police chief of E.B. Magalona has refused to die down.

Mayor Alfonso Gamboa claimed that Senior Supt. Rosendo Franco has violated the presumption of regularity in the performance of official duties and responsibilities, when he relieved Rapiz only on the basis of allegations against him by complainants.

Without conducting a thorough investigation, he denied Rapiz of due process, Gamboa said in his letter to Franco, a copy of which he furnished the DAILY STAR.

"I trust that you realized that your action created a demoralizing atmosphere, not only among your ranks, but most especially to the people for whom you took an oath to protect and serve," Gamboa also said.

The latest complaint filed against Rapiz by the so-called "Kabuylugan Group" before the Ombusdman Visayas stemmed from his responding to complaint on noise created by the group members who occupied the whole Alfaro Street in E.B. Magalona as the venue of their Christmas party on Dec. 24. Rapiz was hit with a stone on his right side, when he and his men responded to investigate the complaints at about 2:30 a.m. of Dec. 25, police records show.

Gamboa said Punong Brgy. Hilario Malacon has no authority to issue a permit allowing the Kabuylugan group to use a street as the venue of their party, which is a violation of Section 447 of the Local Government Code. Only the Sangguniang Bayan has the power to do so, he added.

He said Malacon, Hector Jomen and Jonathan Ramintas, president and vice-president of the Kabuylugan Group, ignored the call for a conference by Rapiz on Dec. 27. Gamboa said the place where Rapiz was hit with a stone, is among the areas where drug peddling activities have been neutralized.

In April last year, Senior Supt. Charles Calima, then provincial police director of Negros Occidental, dismissed all charges and counter-charges filed against Rapiz, including police brutality, corruption, womanizing, among others, as plain harassment and smear campaign by arrested drug pushers and erring law enforcers.

Gamboa said the reasons cited by Franco for the relief of Rapiz are flimsy and incongruent.

Copies of Gamboa's letter were also furnished to Governor Joseph Maranon, Region 6 police director Wilfredo Dulay, PNP chief Oscar Calderon and Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, said.*GPB

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