ILOILO City – Late afternoon yesterday, Cong. Richard Garin issued a statement apologizing to the Philippine National Police (PNP) but not to Police Officer 3 Federico Macaya Jr., the Guimbal, Iloilo police station investigator who complained of having been mauled by the legislator.
“First and foremost, nagapangayo ako sang pasensya (I apologize) especially (to) the PNP as an institution, and also sa officers and personnel sang PNP upon whom I have great respect,” he said.
According to Garin, he was taking “full responsibility” for his actions but stressed these were not directed against the PNP as an institution or against its officers and personnel but toward “one single personnel” that, in his view, “committed a great disservice to the people of Guimbal.”
Garin said he got irked with Macaya after a victim in a Dec. 22 commotion at the Guimbal public plaza told them that the policeman persuaded him not to file the case against an attacker and that the cop forced him to sign an affidavit expressing disinterest in filing charges.
“For me, what the policeman did was a betrayal of public thrust kag klaro nga pag abusar sang iya posisyon,” according to Garin.
The plaza incident, Garin said, was “gamay man lang tani nga disturbo ugaling ang suspect isa ka-habitual delinquent.”
What Macaya did, according to the congressman, was contrary to the PNP policy of not settling the parties in a criminal case.
His actions, he added, “were a mere display of extreme frustration towards one, single PNP personnel nga sa akon panglantaw committed a great disservice to the people of Guimbal.”
Macaya belied the congressman’s assertions. He said the victim was the one who refused to file charges because he did not want to worry his parents, who were overseas contract workers, to know about the incident./PN
