ILOILO – Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, police provincial director, denied that policemen who searched the house of Sara, Iloilo’s Mayor Ermelita Salcedo for loose firearms destroyed the house’s closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and stole money and jewelry.
“We followed the proper procedure in serving the search warrant. First, we secured all the persons inside the house because we heard they would be putting up a fight. After we secured them, we read the content of the search warrant,” said Tayaba.
Before raiding the Salcedo house on Wednesday last week, Tayaba said, policemen were assigned specific tasks.
“Kung ano ang task nila ‘yun lang ang ginawa nila,” he stressed, adding that the instruction was clear: “Do not take anything that are not included as evidence and concentrate on their specific tasks.”
Mayor Salcedo also claimed her household members were treated harshly.
“Wala kaming ninakaw. May naka-task na tao ko para mag-search. Hindi basta makapasok sa room kung hindi ka search officer. At saka mga Salcedo nanakawan mo? Alam naman natin na hindi basta-basta ang mga Salcedo,” said Tayaba.
He added: “I did not even notice where the CCTV cameras were situated. Wala kaming nalabag na batas.”
Mayor Salcedo said the police should have let the house dwellers such as her read the search warrant first before entering.
What the policemen did, she said, was destroy the house’s door and barge in.
They made the people inside the house drop on the floor face down and tied them up before letting them read the contents of the search warrant, said Mayor Salcedo.
Tayaba said the IPPO would welcome whatever complaint the Salcedos would file.
On the other hand, Tayaba said, all the firearms seized from the Salcedo house were being subjected to forensic examination and criminal charges could be filed this week.
Tayaba said what the Salcedos presented to the police hours after the raid were photocopies of gun licenses.
“We wanted the original licenses. Besides, we were suspecting that some short firearms recovered may not be original and this was why we wanted that all the guns examined, he said.
Recovered during the raid were an M14 rifle, M16 rifle, Ultimax 100 311 rifle, 12-gauge shotgun, AK47 rifle, three .45 pistols, and assorted bullets./PN
