Alleged ‘hulidap’ mastermind suspended for PNPA hazing

MANILA, Philippines - The alleged mastermind of the Sept. 1 EDSA “hulidap,” Senior Inspector Oliver Villanueva, was suspended for hazing when he was a cadet at the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA), a police official said yesterday.

Villanueva was originally a member of the PNPA Class 2000 but he graduated in 2001 after his suspension, said Chief Inspector Reycon Garduque of the Makati City police.

“It is only the PNPA who has records of his hazing suspension. What I know is that he was among the 164 members of our class who graduated in 2001,” Garduque said in an interview.

Garduque is a former president of PNPA Class 2001 and was replaced by Superintendent Deanry Francisco, who is assigned at the Directorate for Logistics in Camp Crame.

He said he has no personal knowledge of Villanueva’s activities since “we have not been assigned together in a police unit.”

Villanueva, along with Chief Inspector Joseph de Vera, deputy chief of the La Loma police station in Quezon City; Senior Inspector Allan Emlano and dismissed Inspector Marco Polo Estrera, all belong to PNPA Class 2001. All of them have been linked to the EDSA kidnap-robbery.

De Vera and PO2 Jonathan Rodriguez were arrested while Emlano along with five policemen surrendered to their superiors at the Quezon City Police District.

Cadet’s death

A member of PNPA Class 2001, who requested anonymity, said then interior and local government secretary Alfredo Lim ordered the suspension of their batch following the death of cadet Dominante Tunac, who belonged to Class 2003, reportedly due to hazing.

Reports had it that Tunac died on May 15, 2000, three days after collapsing in suspected initiation rites to welcome the cadets into the PNPA. Hazing had been outlawed by that time.

According to a probe by the National Bureau of Investigation, Tunac’s kidney was ruptured by a blow with a blunt instrument.

The members of PNPA Class 2001 brought Lim’s order to the courts, which ruled in their favor and allowed them to graduate in December 2001.

Still in hiding

Villanueva, a brother of Mabini, Batangas Mayor Lino Villanueva, a Liberal Party stalwart and president of the Mayor’s League of the Philippines, remains at large.

Earlier, National Capital Region Police Office chief Direcror Carmelo Valmoria urged Villanueva to surrender and face the music as his continued evasion is “a waste of the government’s money.”

A witness took a photo of the incident and it went viral when it was uploaded on Twitter and Facebook.

The picture led Eastern Police District to De Vera and the other policemen, who were traced through the plate number of the vehicles they used in the operation.

Valmoria said all the policemen would undergo summary dismissal proceedings aside from the criminal cases they are facing.– With Cecille Suerte Felipe