Paolo files raps before Ombudsman vs. Agnes, cops

CEBU, Philippines -  The son of suspended governor Gwendolyn Garcia, Pablo “Paolo” Garcia III, filed administrative charges before the Office of the Ombudsman against acting governor Agnes Magpale and police officials for their refusal to return tents that he rented.

Paolo earlier filed a criminal case for robbery before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office against the same police officials and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Manuel Roxas.

Named respondents in the both cases are Police Regional Office-7 Director Marcelo Garbo, Commanding Officer of the Regional Public Safety Battalion (RPSB) Supt. Leopoldo Cabanag and Police Inspector Alvino Enguito of RPSB.

But Garbo said the administrative case filed by Paolo is only “fueling up the situation.”

“He is now hitting the good institution of the Philippine National Police, hindi lang ang mga police officers na kanyang finaylan ng kaso,” said Garbo in a phone interview yesterday.

In filing the administrative complaint, Paolo included Magpale as respondent because he learned that it was the latter who instructed Garbo to dismantle and take the tents. Garbo then instructed Cabanag as the ground commander and Enguito enforced the instruction.

The tents were installed on December 18, 2012 in front of the Capitol to be used for a Holy Mass and prayer vigil.

Paolo said he rented the tents from Sheentrade Marketing at P2,600 per day. However, he said, on December 19, 2012 at around 9:30 p.m. while the prayer vigil was ongoing, 80 to 100 uniformed and armed men from the PNP arrived and “hurriedly dispersed” the prayer vigil.

Paolo reportedly told Enguito that the tents are not the property of the government but the police still continued to dismantle them and placed these on the PNP trucks.

The actuation of the respondents, Paolo said, falls under the elements of grave misconduct.

In his three-page complaint, Paolo cited the Supreme Court ruling on the case of Civil Service Commission vs. Jose J. Lucas (G.R. No. 127838 dated January 21, 1999 held that:

“As well stated by the Court of Appeals, there is an existing guideline of Civil Service Commission distinguishing simple and grave misconduct. In the case of Landrito vs. Civil Service Commission, we held that in grave misconduct as distinguished from simple misconduct, the elements of corruption, clear intent to violate the law or flagrant disregard of established rule, must be manifest.”

In the criminal case, Paolo included Roxas as respondent because he learned that it was also the latter who instructed Garbo to dismantle the tents.

According to Garbo, Paolo just shows his arrogance and accused the governor’s son of starting all these. “We did not start it,” said Garbo.

Garbo said it was Paolo and his group who hit a police officer in the person of Insp. Alvin Enguito whom he deployed at the Provincial Capitol last December 19.

Enguito, with Garbo’s supervision, filed a case for direct assault against Paolo and alleged cohorts Tonyson Lee and Joey Cal.

Garbo has since been reminding his men deployed at the Capitol to observe “super maximum tolerance”, but has also maintained that he will not tolerate any maltreatment to the police. — With Niña G. Sumacot/JPM (FREEMAN)