Padaca calls for cop chief's relief anew

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca called anew for the relief of the provincial police director following last Saturday’s killing of the head of the Commission on Elections in the province. 

This developed as two suspects, said to belong to robbery and gun-for-hire groups, were arrested yesterday for the killing of Isabela election supervisor Michael Valdez.

The two, identified as Henry Taccad and Gerry Calanday, were tagged as owners of the getaway car. Two others, a certain Lito Magdangal and Bunny, are being hunted as principal suspects.  

In a statement, Padaca blamed Senior Superintendent Jimmy Rivera, provincial police director, for his alleged lack of intelligence-gathering efforts that led to Valdez’s killing by at least two men at the victim’s Country Hotel and Drive Inn in Tumauini town early Saturday morning. 

Valdez, 37, died from three gunshot wounds in the back.

With Valdez’s killing, Padaca said the province needs a police director “who, at the very least, should be neutral and who should be an agent of peace which we Isabelinos now more than ever badly need.”

The killing, she said, resulted from Rivera’s inaction on intelligence reports, adding that he “has not been directly communicating” with her office for more than four months now.  

“If he is truly doing his job, he must know of these intelligence reports, too, but since he has been practically ignoring me as the province’s highest civilian authority, he must at least have reported this to his regional director, hence (Chief Superintendent) Roberto Damian must be aware of this, too,” she added. 

Padaca described Valdez’s murder as “terrible but not totally unexpected.”