Many people not only in the Cordillera but also in other parts of the global village are eagerly awaiting the latest development in the celebrated case of SPO3 Alberto C. Tadeo, the city’s devoted traffic officer, who was transferred to a remote destination. His transgression? He reminded subordinates who are the driver and security aide of a ranking regional police official to be role models in adhering to the city’s traffic rules and regulations. About month ago, these underlings drove to the city in a vehicle whose license plate number that violated the Baguio Number Coding Scheme. Instead of facing squarely the controversy that ensued, some regional police officers even allegedly boasted that they are protected by some influential national officials and the City Council can do what it wants to sanction a member of their rank for all they care.
Another disgruntled regional police official who obviously has some axe to grind against officials in a local government unit is alleged to have claimed that the Philippine National Police (PNP) leadership is now working out the removal of the power of local chief executives over the police. Seemingly, this is to allow these insecure persons to manipulate decisions to suit their personal interests. Lately, the police official involved in the Tadeo case paid a courtesy call to some local officials amidst the objection of his fellow officers in the command group. This group seems to want to cover-up what has been wrong from the start. It is still uncertain if the regional police leadership complied with its commitment to bring back Tadeo, who continues to get the support of the public, to the regional headquarters at least to allow him to face the cases against him and to face his accusers personally. While the persona non-grata resolution against Senior Superintendent Lim was temporarily withdrawn from the calendar of business of the City Council, the same proposal can be re-filed and acted upon if the concerned regional police officers will defy their commitment, an act unbecoming of a police officer and a grave abuse of authority and acts prejudicial to the best interest of the service. The said resolution could be successively filed and this can stall their respective promotions, especially for one who is aiming for a rank of general and another who is reportedly eager to be the region’s second top policeman.
From the start, we find that the act of the regional police office in transferring Tadeo to Apayao was unjust, a gross abuse of power, and willful defiance of the code of ethics and standards of public officers. Logic dictates that with a wrong premise, the conclusion will not always be right. The insistence of these abusive police officers to justify their blatantly illegal act is a direct affront to the intelligence of the people. The ranks they hold, either as generals or colonels, or their positions as regional officers, does not entitle them to justify erroneous decisions and defy due process. As the mandated body that ensures the security of persons, the police should be the first in line to ensure that nobody is denied the right to due process.
The latest decision of the same regional police officials to transfer outside the region uniformed and non-uniformed personnel who favored Tadeo in their comments in social media is another sign of their insecurity and impunity. Even with the most efficient machinery in the region, the Police Regional Office in the Cordillera cannot justify such cowardly and vindictive actions because there are laws and processes to follow. People know how to judge what is just and fair.
These decisions of the regional police body arising from the Tadeo case are all self-serving, discriminatory and smacks of machismo. It reflects insecurity of the persons in authority just to achieve narrow personal interests to the detriment of their mandate. May we remind these regional police officials that the police force was established to be civilian in nature and based on the fundamental law of the land, civilian authority remains supreme over the military.
We strongly denounce these cowardly, vindictive, and unjust decisions of the regional police officials against lowly ranked policemen who simply expressed their sentiments against the obvious unfair decision of their superiors against Tadeo. We also denounce the harassment being done by the regional police officials to some of the media as if they have authority over them. We want to alert all media practitioners and the public on these attempts to muzzle the media over these decisions and actions of the regional police body. The Cordillera media cannot be cowed because it knows its stand. We know what is just and fair. The public continues to monitor the actions of officials mandated to serve them and no authority can put good service staff down.