The management of a jeepney group whose drivers figured in a scuffle with police officers in Bacolod City last week, yesterday said they will file charges against the law enforcers today.

Joemarie Uytiepo, manager of Uytiepo Lines, told the DAILY STAR they will assist their drivers in filing cases against the three Bacolod City Police Office Mobile Group members allegedly involved in threatening their employees and injuring one of them.

Uytiepo said they will file the charges before the Bacolod City Prosecutor’s Office and the Commission on Human Rights against PO1 Roberto Pineda Jr., PO1 Joey Genterola, and PO2 Alexis Disomangcop.

The three policemen had been disarmed and restricted to the BCPO compound after the incident, deputy director and CMG commander, Supt. Leo Erwin Agpangan, said Friday.

The result of the BCPO Intelligence and Investigation Branch probe on what actually happened is expected to come out today, he said.

The conflict stemmed from a traffic altercation between the BCPO-CMG members and Uytiepo Lines driver John Redo Johnson along B.S. Aquino Drive, Bacolod, around midnight Thursday.

Rene de Dios, an Uytiepo Lines employee, said the attack happened when Johnson, 35, drove past the officers at B.S. Aquino Drive at about midnight Thursday.

The officers, who were allegedly on board a gray Mitsubishi Lancer with Plate No. PRY-519, then chased Johnson up to the Uytiepo Lines compound, De Dios said.

Outside the compound, De Dios said the three male officers, who he said, were heavily intoxicated, surrounded Johnson, and threatened and provoked him and the other drivers who saw the commotion until Rolly and Ronald, both surnamed Bayadog, confronted the policemen.

A scuffle then broke out between the Bayadogs and the officers, prompting one of them to fire his gun, De Dios said.

The officers told Agpangan that they were forced to defend themselves when the jeepney group’s drivers mobbed them outside its compound at Princess Urduja Street, Brgy. Villamonte, Bacolod.

Agpangan, who had said the officers were off-duty at that time, had confirmed that Disomangcop had fired warning shots on the ground that left driver Elvis Divinagracia 42, of Purok Neptune, Brgy. Singcang, Bacolod injured when part of a stray bullet hit him on the chest.

Joemarie said Divinagracia has already been discharged from the hospital after he was treated as the bullet did not pierce his skin and just stuck on his chest.

Agpangan said the drivers are free to file cases, saying they will not tolerate the police officers if they were at fault.

Police Station 4 commander, Chief Inspector Santiago Rapiz, whose area covers the Uytiepo Lines compound, said, that personally, he believes that the drivers and the officers have faults because Johnson appeared to have violated a traffic rule while the law enforcers identified themselves as policemen although they were in civilian clothes.

BCPO director, Senior Supt. Ronilo Quebrar, said that if cases are filed against the three, it will depend on the result of the IIB investigation whether the Philippine National Police will provide a lawyer for them or not.

Quebrar also said that had Disomangcop fired his gun to harm the drivers who allegedly mobbed them, there could have been more injuries on the part of the motorists.

Instead, Quebrar said, the officer have chosen to fall back and just fired warning shots to avoid hurting anyone.

He also said that another officer, PO2 Mae Lumawag, who was also allegedly with the three male officers at that time, is also under investigation.*PP

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