ILOILO – Mayor Ermelita Salcedo of Sara, Iloilo said she was fearful for her safety.
She was shaken by Wednesday last week’s raid of her house in Barangay Poblacion Ilawod, Sara by policemen for loose firearms.
“Ginasalig ko na lang kay Lord,” said Salcedo.
The raid resulted to the death of Salcedo’s stepson Nerio “Ricky” Salcedo and step grandson Nixon Salcedo Jr. They put up a fight, said Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, police provincial director.
But while she was scared, Salcedo said she had no plan to ask for a police escort. She was not used to having security escorts, she stressed.
“We do understand her. Normal naman na mangamba s’ya because of what happened,” said Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, Police Regional Office 6 director.
“We assure her that as long as she’s not doing any unlawful act, ‘di naman s’ya maaaring arestuhin,” he said.
Salcedo questioned the steps the police took in raiding her house. The cops should have let the house dwellers such as her read the search warrant first before entering, she said.
What the policemen did, she said, was destroy her 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 Salcedo.
Bulalacao, however, defended his men saying they carried out the operation with professionalism.
In fact, he said, they released Salcedo after initially taking her into custody following the seizure of several firearms.
The mayor was not the subject of the search warrant but her husband Neptali so she had to be released, stressed Bulalaao.
Neptali, former mayor of Sara, was not in the house during the raid. As of this writing his whereabouts remained unknown.
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
