11 Bulacan cops sacked over fake drug sting

MANILA, Philippines — Eleven police officers in San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan who were accused of detaining six men and killing two of them in a fabricated anti-drug operation in February have been relieved from their posts.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Archie Gamboa ordered the relief of the police officers on Thursday, a day after the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) filed complaints for kidnapping with murder, planting of firearms and planting of illegal drugs before the Department of Justice.

The respondents are Maj. Leo dela Rosa; S/Sgts. Benjie Enconado, Jayson Legaspi, Irwin Yuson and Edmund Catubay Jr.; Cpls. Jay Leoncio, Herbert Hernandez, Raymond Bayan and Raul Malgapo, and Pat. Erwin Sabido and Rusco Madla.

“Those accused must be made to answer for their criminal acts. In the meantime, it is best that they are relieved from duty to eliminate any suspicion of whitewash or coddling,” Gamboa said.

“The unlawful actions of the indicted policemen are purely theirs and are not sanctioned by any official orders, policy or regulation,” he said.

NBI probers said the respondents made it appear that two of the victims were killed in a shootout with anti-narcotics agents and presented them as accomplishments in the government’s war on illegal drugs.