MANILA: Four police officers charged over the 2021 to 2022 disappearances of cockfighting aficionados (sabungeros) were ordered dismissed again, alongside seven other cops, in a separate administrative complaint connected to two other alleged kidnapping cases.
In a statement on Friday (May 1), the National Police Commission (Napolcom) said it had found all 11 police officers administratively liable for two counts of grave misconduct and two counts of conduct unbecoming of a police officer.
“Given the gravity of the offenses and the presence of multiple administrative violations, the Commission imposed the maximum penalty of dismissal from the service, along with the corresponding accessory penalties under existing rules,” the commission explained.
It identified the implicated cops as Police Lt. Col. Ryan Jay Orapa; Police Maj. Mark Phillip Almedilla; Police Senior Master Sgt. Mark Anthony Manrique; Police Staff Sgts. Edmon Muñoz, Robert Allan Raz Jr. and Denar Roda; Police Cpls. Alric Natividad, Reynaldo Seno Jr. and Ronald John Lanaria; and Pats. Rufino Miguel Panghulan and Develyn Tapalla.
Orapa, Almedilla, Manrique and Muñoz were administratively charged over the sabungeros case last August, criminally charged over the same last December and arrested and dismissed from the police service last January.
This time, the four officers, alongside the seven other police personnel, were accused of abducting 28-year-old Dane Mark Carlos and 30-year-old Charles Dean Sotto in separate instances under the guise of anti-drug operations on Feb. 17, 2021 and March 24, 2021.
All 11 police officers were assigned to the National Capital Region Police Office Drug Enforcement Unit at the time.
“The respondents’ actions, carried out while they were in active service and acting under the color of authority, seriously dishonored the Philippine National Police and demonstrated a corrupt and unworthy moral character incompatible with public service,” Napolcom said.
The administrative complaint was lodged by the victims’ mothers, Milagros Estacio and Elizabeth Sotto, last September, after they had discovered that Orapa, Almedilla, Manrique and Muñoz had already been administratively charged in the separate sabungeros case.
“We have due process here in Napolcom. We can’t just mix the cases together. We have to look at them separately based on the evidence,” Napolcom Commissioner Rafael Calinisan said in Filipino in a statement. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
