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.