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BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
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Monday, October 2, 2017
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ILOILO City – An arrested drug pushing suspect claimed he was coerced into falsely implicating four policemen to illegal drug protection racket.
According to 33-year-old Gilbert Sumudivilla of Rizal Street, Barangay Rizal Estanzuela, City Proper, he did not actually know Police Officer 1 Henson Digon, Police Officer 1 Domar Deocampo, a certain Police Officer 2 Moso and Police Officer 3 Caro whom he recently claimed were receiving P5,000 protection money weekly from his brother Kenneth.
Kenneth Sumudivilla, a drug pushing suspect, too, was killed in a buy-bust operation of the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) in August last year.
Gilbert said one of the police officers who picked him up Tuesday last week in Barangay Rizal Estanzuela threatened to “salvage” him should he not link the four policemen to illegal drugs.
He identified the police officer as Police Officer 3 Wilfredo Tagle of Police Station 1.
Currently detained at Police Station 1, Gilbert issued a retraction in a letter, copies of which reached the press.
Tagle could not be reached for comment as of this writing.
Gilbert also denied he was arrested in a buy-bust operation in his house on Sept. 26. He claimed he was forced to ride a van at gunpoint by a group of policemen led by Tagle and while inside the vehicle, threats to his life were made.
The shabu supposedly recovered from him was “planted”, added Gilbert.
“A trisikad driver saw what happened. The police didn’t find any illegal drugs from me,” he stressed.
Written in Hiligaynon, part of Gilbert’s retraction letter read: “From our house, I brought my two children back to their mother in Barangay Tanza Timawa Zone 1, then left for home again on a trisikad. Back in Barangay Rizal Estanzuela near the terminal of trisikads, PO3 Tagle threatened me with a gun and told me to board a waiting van. Inside the vehicle, he asked where I get illegal drugs. I told him I don’t push drugs. Then he asked me if I knew PO1 Deocampo. I said I didn’t. He asked me if I knew Moso, Digon and Caro, too, and I said I didn’t know them also.”
According to Gilbert, Tagle then instructed him to name the four police officers as drug protectors or be killed.
“Then I was blindfolded I didn’t know where I was being taken. The vehicle eventually stopped. I found out were at the police station and my family was already there waiting for me,” stated Gilbert.
Sumudivilla’s retraction letter was written several hours after he tagged the four policemen to illegal drug protection racket.
Acting quickly on Sumudivilla’s latest statements, ICPO director Senior Superintendent Henry Biñas transferred Tagle to the Arevalo police station. He said the ICPO investigation section would get down to the bottom of Sumudivilla’s allegations.
“I want a thorough investigation, the true story. Those found liable will face appropriate sanctions,” Biñas told Panay News.
He warned policemen against ruining the Philippine National Police.
“We are trying our best to gain the trust of the community. I know the truth will come out,” said Biñas.
Last week, Sumudivilla claimed the four policemen were frequently in touch with his younger brother Kenneth when the latter was still alive.
“I often saw the policemen talking to my brother. I don’t eavesdrop but one time I heard them talking about persons they were planning to arrest,” he claimed.
Four months after Kenneth was killed in August 2016, Police Officer 1 Digon was arrested in Barangay North Baluarte, Molo on Dec. 8, 2016, in a police antidrug operation.
Digon is currently detained at the Iloilo District Jail in Barangay Nanga, Pototan, Iloilo and faces a charge for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Police Officer 1 Deocampo, on the other hand, was caught in a police antidrug operation just this Aug. 12, 2017 in Barangay Tanza-Baybay, City Proper.
Deocampo used to be an intelligence officer and member of the Station Drug Enforcement Team of the Molo police station. He was relieved last year after his name was linked to a wanted drug personality and eventually reassigned to the Antique Police Provincial Office. He was posted at the Pandan municipal police station./PN
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