‘Illegal detention’: 4 Mandurriao cops face probe

Chief Inspector Juvy Navales, head of the Mandurriao police station, says the Iloilo City resident who lodged charges against her and her three personnel at the Office of the Ombudsman is just “out for revenge.” IAN PAUL CORDERO/PN

ILOILO City – Four officers from the Mandurriao police station were facing investigation for alleged illegal detention.

Raymund Louis Arreza, a resident of Barangay Veterans’ Village, City Proper, alleged that the police officers did not make clear his violation when they put him behind bars at their station for four days.

Facing probe were Police Officer 1 Nelson Clement, Senior Police Officer 3 Isidro Pacinio and Senior Police Officer 2 Christopher Juarez, and their station head, Chief Inspector Juvy Navales.

Arreza lodged against the officers a string of criminal and administrative charges at the Office of the Ombudsman – unlawful arrest, arbitrary detention, perjury, falsification for criminal cases, conduct unbecoming of a police officer, abuse of authority, and grave misconduct.

Chief Inspector John Evan Salvo, chief of the Iloilo City Police Office’s Investigation Section, was looking into the case, said Senior Superintendent Henry Biñas, city police director.

TRAFFIC VIOLATION?

Arreza said he was driving a motorcycle with a friend as rider when Juarez, Clement and Pacinio flagged them down in Barangay San Rafael, Mandurriao at around 12:30 a.m. on May 14.

The officers claimed he disregarded the traffic lights. They also asked him if he was a policeman and if he had a firearm in his bag, Arreza said.

Arreza denied that he was a policeman and said his bag contained his mobile phone. He also clarified that he only drove forward when the traffic light turned green.

Given that he indeed violated a traffic rule, the officers did not issue him a temporary operator’s permit (TOP), he said.

Instead, they forced him to go with them to the Mandurriao police station. There, Navales told her personnel to detain him for falsely claiming to be a policeman, claimed Arreza.

The complainant said he explained that he did not introduce himself as a policeman and was just asking for a TOP since he was accused of violating a traffic rule.

Several hours later he received a TOP signed by traffic aide Judy Navales, cousin of officer Navales, but the document had no date, time and place of arrest, said Arreza.

Moreover, Arreza said officer Navales was not in the area where he was flagged down and he believed it was impossible that traffic aide Navales was still on duty at 2 a.m.

‘OUT FOR REVENGE’                          

Officer Navales refuted Arreza’s allegations, stressing that the motorist committed “simple harassment” against police officers out to catch “riding-in-tandem,” a term coined to refer to those who use motorcycles in staging crimes.

Arreza’s motorcycle had no certificate of registration, no side mirror and no plate number, Navales said. (Arreza claimed his motorcycle’s plate number was 5273UX.)

“We would have just impounded his motorcycle and let him go, but he introduced himself as a policeman and showed us nothing when we asked for identification, so we arrested and detained him,” said Navales.

Footage from the security camera at the Mandurriao police station can further show what really happened, she said.

“We charged him with usurpation of authority and he was just out for revenge,” said the police station head./PN

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