ILOILO City – Dismissed police officer Charlie Sustento, former police chief of Ajuy, Iloilo, made a public appeal yesterday.
“I’m already dismissed from the service. Why would they run after me? Nagapakalinong na ako, ngaa ginahingabot pa nila ako,” he said.
Sustento was ordered dismissed from the police service by the Office of the Ombudsman last year for grave misconduct, conduct unbecoming of a police officer, gross incompetence, abuse of authority, and violation of Republic Act 6713 (Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees).
He claimed he was being stalked lately and urged the Police Regional Office 6 to investigate Police Officer 2 Timojen Jose Ramon Dairo, Police Officer 2 Jose Friday Fernandez and Police Officer 2 Jonito Subron, all intelligence officers of Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo police station.
According to Sustento, the three police officers were close to Iloilo 4th District’s Cong. Ferjenel Biron.
“Wala ko ‘ya kwarta kag ikasarang magbato,” said the former policeman.
Chief Inspector Reymond Celoso, Barotac Nuevo police chief, said the three police officers Sustento named indeed served as bodyguards of Biron or the congressmen’s sons.
He felt threatened, said Sustento.
He found it strange, he said, why on July 20 at around 4 p.m. the policemen would ask waiters and waitresses of a mall coffee shop he was patronizing about his whereabouts.
A staff of Biron, Lemuel Fernandez, dismissed Sustento’s claims as all hearsay. He denied having instructed the three policemen to monitor Sustento’s movements.
In fact, according to Fernandez, it was he whom Sustento threatened with harm and had this recorded at the Mandurriao police station.
Fernandez said he learned about Sustento’s threat – made at SM City Iloilo – from Provincial Legal Officer Dennis Ventilacion on July 19.
He then recalled a checkpoint incident in Dumangas, Iloilo days before the May 2016 election. Sustento, the police chief of Dumangas at the time, was criticized for that, said Fernandez.
In a previous interview, Sustento said an unseen hand was behind his dismissal.
The complaints for which Sustento was dismissed from the police service were filed when he was the chief of police of Dumangas in 2014.
In an interview over DyFM Bombo Radyo Iloilo yesterday morning, Sustento said Biron was behind his dismissal.
Biron, in the same radio station, denied this and challenged Sustento to show proof./PN
