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BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
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Wednesday, February 28, 2018
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Napolcom cites link to Odicta
ILOILO City – Two Iloilo police officers that President Rodrigo Duterte linked to illegal drugs in 2016 were dismissed from the police service.
The National Police Commission (Napolcom) ordered the sacking of Superintendent Ipil Dueñas for conduct unbecoming of a police officer and Superintendent Roderick Condag for incompetence and gross neglect of duty.
Dueñas and Condag were former intelligence officers of the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) and Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO), respectively.
“As intelligence chief of the ICPO, Dueñas failed to curb the proliferation of illegal drugs in Iloilo City…because he was associated with (suspected drug lord Melvin) Odicta (Sr.),” said Atty. Joseph Celiz, Napolcom regional director.
Napolcom Region 6 received the dismissal order from its central office in Metro Manila on Monday.
Odicta was shot to death by unidentified gunmen on Aug. 29, 2016 at the jetty port in Caticlan, Malay, Aklan three weeks after Duterte named and shamed Dueñas and Condag along with several Iloilo mayors and other police officers.
Celiz said the Napolcom en banc was also convinced that Condag failed to perform his duty as IPPO intelligence chief vis-à-vis the illegal drug campaign and later as chief of the IPPO’s Public Safety Company due, too, to the policeman’s alleged association with Odicta.
Dueñas denied associating with Odicta. He confirmed having received the Napolcom order and told Panay News he already filed a motion for reconsideration.
In an Aug. 7, 2016 speech, of the several police officers Duterte linked to illegal drugs – some active while others already retired – 17 were from Western Visayas.
These police officers were now “dead” administratively, said the President.
Under his six-year term that would end in 2022 yet, Duterte said the still active policemen he named won’t get a promotion at the very least.
Dueñas and Condag were the second to get the boot; the first whom, Duterte also named and shamed in 2016, was the former chief of the Police Regional Office 6’s Regional Intelligence Office – Superintendent Ronald Allan Gepana. Napolcom found him guilty of conduct unbecoming of a police officer and cited his association with Odicta, too.
The conduct of those in public service “must be above and beyond suspicion,” Napolcom stressed in a ruling issued October last year.
Though he admitted knowing Odicta, Gepana said he never received payola from any drug dealer. He had appealed the Napolcom en banc’s decision.
“I have never protected a drug pusher,” said Gepana. “Basi may mga facts kag information nga wala lang ma-deliberate further. That’s why we filed a motion for reconsideration. I hope nga ma-reverse ang kaso ko because I’m innocent.”
According to the Napolcom en banc, the police official’s association with Odicta was “seriously affecting the government’s campaign against illegal drugs” and “compromising his character as a public servant…”
As a police official, the “law demands from him to maintain high standards of ethics and morality worthy to be trusted by the general public whom he is pledged to serve,” the Napolcom stressed.
In his counter-affidavit, Gepana admitted knowing Odicta for 16 years, according to Napolcom.
“Respondent admitted they saw each other on different parties and celebrations of mutual friends as well as dining at the latter’s restaurant,” part of the Napolcom decision read.
The two met in 2000 when one of Gepana’s high school classmates who happened to be Odicta’s neighbor in Barangay Malipayon, Iloilo City introduced the police official to the drug suspect at a birthday party, according to Napolcom, citing Gepana’s own affidavit.
At that time, according to Gepana, he was assigned in Central Mindanao and had no idea of Odicta’s alleged illegal business in Iloilo City.
But according to the Napolcom en banc, it was “quite improbable and amusing” that Gepana, who was handling intelligence operation, “denied knowledge of the drug business of Melvin Odicta.”
As a ranking police officer, according to Napolcom, Gepana should have avoided situations which could link or associate him to suspected drug personalities.
Section 1 (5), Rule 21, Part III of the Napolcom Memorandum Circular No. 2016-002 defined “conduct unbecoming of a police” as any act or behavior of a police officer, irrespective of rank, done in official or private capacity, which disgraces himself as a police officer and seriously compromises his character and standing in the Philippine National Police./PN
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