BY AARON RECUENCO
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Police Gen. Archie Francisco Gamboa has ordered a thorough investigation on the alleged harassment of the family of a retired police sergeant accused of illegally occupying a parcel of land inside Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.
Gamboa said the focus of the investigation is to determine if there were lapses or abuse of authority when a group of policemen led by National Capital Region Police Office chief Police Major Gen. Debold Sinas confronted the family of retired Police Executive Master Sgt. Arnel delos Santos.
“We will investigate how they carried out the order. Of course, we know that a video speaks a thousand words, that’s why we will investigate what happened during that confrontation,” said Gamboa, referring to the viral video posted on Facebook by the son of Delos Santos showing Sinas confronting them along with other policemen.
The Facebook post did not specify the reason for the confrontation. But Sinas in a statement said it was all because the family of Delos Santos refused to vacate the parcel of land inside a police camp and even put up barricades to prevent the policemen from entering.
Sinas said that since Delos Santos has been retired, he cannot anymore occupy the area since the agreement when he was allowed to stay in the parcel of land was that he would leave after his retirement in November 2018.
“Despite several dialogues, notices, and attempts to amicably settle the issue for him to vacate the property, all efforts exerted were futile. He refused to converse with PNP officials regarding their continued illegal occupancy of the motor pool quarters. Worse, he even brought his whole family together with his married children in the police quarters,” said Sinas.
Sinas said the reason why he was rushing the eviction of the Delos Santos family is because they are planning to put up a quarantine facility in the area where the family of the retired cop is staying.
The video, however, showed one of the policemen grabbing the cellular phone of one of the family members that was being used to record the incident and another cop allegedly acting as if he would punch a relative of the retired policeman who was trying to retrieve the documents purportedly showing that they have the right to occupy the area inside the police camp.
Gamboa admitted that squatting is one of the major problems being confronted by the PNP, especially in the provinces.
He said that he is now taking measures to recover all the parcels of lands illegally being occupied by people, including retired or former policemen.
“One of my thrust is really to relocate them and require them to vacate these places because there are many infrastructure projects of the PNP and we need our lands. But this is a continuing program of the PNP – to free PNP camps of squatters,” said Gamboa. (Aaron Recuenco)
