Fidel Ramos approves dismissal proceedings
Fidel Ramos approves dismissal proceedings
MANILA (AFP): President Fidel Ramos yesterday approved the
conduct of summary proceedings that could lead to the dismissal
of three police generals and a colonel implicated in the
controversial killing of 11 suspected bank robbers.
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, director general
Recaredo Sarmiento, wrote Ramos on Saturday seeking clearance to
initiate "summary dismissal proceedings" against the four senior
officials.
The presidential palace released copies of Sarmiento's letter
with a marginal note bearing Ramos' signature and approval of the
request, the officers being political appointees.
Two low-ranking police investigators have alleged in
testimonies before a senate committee probing the May 18 incident
that the four officers planned the murder of the 11 men and
attempted to cover it up by making it appear that they were bank
robbers slain in a shootout.
A separate PNP committee also recommended the filing of
criminal charges against the four along with several other police
officers involved in the alleged killings.
The four have denied the charges and resigned from their
posts. Some of them snubbed the senate hearing, saying they
preferred to answer the charges after they are formally filed in
court.
The officers include chief superintendents Jewel Canson, chief
of police forces in the capital, Romeo Acop, commander of the
Criminal Investigation Service, Panfilo Lacson, head of a task
force under anti-crime chief Vice President Joseph Estrada.
The alleged killings have raised protests from human rights
groups and the media on illegal police methods under the
country's democratic system.
Estrada has also been criticized for saying that the suspects
"deserved to die."
But on Saturday, the embattled officers found an ally in two
citizen's crime watch groups composed of the relatives of victims
of kidnappings and killings by criminal gangs.
The groups attested to the integrity of Canson and Lacson and
claimed they were being framed by crime syndicates in a bid to
oust them from their posts. They praised the two for their
effective work against gangs.