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[av_heading heading=’Gentiles sacks police chief after anti-gambling op ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY RUBY P. SLUBRICO
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ILOILO – The Regional Special Operations Unit (RSOU) of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) has a lot of explaining to do for an anti-illegal gambling operation in Barangay Lapayon, Leganes, Iloilo on Saturday. But it’s the police chief of Leganes that was relieved from his post yesterday.
Nine men that the RSOU arrested claimed they were carpenters, not illegal gambling bet collectors. They also accused the RSOU men of taking the P397,000 budget for their wages and materials of the house they were constructing.
Chief Superintendent Jose Gentiles, regional police director, sacked Senior Inspector Gerry Leones, Leganes police chief, yesterday.
“We ordered his relief so he could not influence the body that will be conducting the investigation,” explained Gentiles.
He cited the presence of illegal gamblers in Leganes as basis for removing Leones from the town.
Gentiles ordered the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) to conduct the probe. But he did not order the relief of the RSOU men who conducted Saturday’s operation.
The RSOU is composed of two teams – Alpha and Bravo. These were created by Gentiles himself and given the specific task to conduct anti-illegal gambling operations.
Gentiles said the RSOU policemen in the Saturday operation will also be investigated.
Leones was transferred to the IPPO. Senior Superintendent Roderick Augustus Alba, IPPO director, ordered Chief Inspector Elmer Magbanua to temporarily take over Leones’ post in Leganes.
The RSOU conducted the operation in Barangay Lapayon, Leganes on Saturday around 2:30 p.m., without prior coordination with the Leganes police, according to Leones.
While the RSOU men immediately turned over to the Leganes police station the nine persons they arrested in Barangay Lapayon, it was only on Sunday that they submitted to the police station the so-called evidences they confiscated from the suspects. These were bet stubs, pens, a stapler, a carbon paper, markers, P11,664 cash and a black jacket.
“We will wait for the result of the investigation to know who will be liable,” said Gentiles./PN
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