Cops sacked over ‘lapses’ in Quiboloy arrest

MANILA, Philippines — The top police commander in Davao region and other ranking officials were sacked from their posts and placed on floating status following raids on the properties of fugitive pastor Apollo Quiboloy, which was criticized by his allies for allegedly being excessive.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil has relieved Brig. Gen. Aligre Martinez from his post as director of Police Regional Office 11 and reassigned him to the personnel holding and admin unit of the police Directorate for Personnel and Records Management.

Martinez was replaced by Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III, the head of Communications and Electronic Service, who is known for his three-minute response time policy when he was director of the Quezon City Police District.

Also affected by the fallout from the operation were Directorate for Operations (DO) head Maj. Gen. Ronald Oliver Lee and Col. Edwin Portento of the Intelligence Group.

PNP chief information officer Col. Jean Fajardo said yesterday that 12 other police officers – nine from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, two from the Special Action Force (SAF) and one from the Davao City Traffic Enforcement Unit – were also relieved from their posts.

Those relieved were Lt. Col. Allan Reginald Laguardia Basiya (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Davao City), Lt. Col. Dexter Sosa Domingo (Traffic Enforcement Unit chief Davao City), Majors Ricky Malinao Fornolles and Nilo Atencio Morallos, Capt. Martin Torres Cordero, Executive Master Sergeants Mark Christopher Garcia Aala, Mediavillo Perez Alcantara, Rodrigo Silang Arguelles and Jhonathan Cornejo Recto; and Staff Sgt. Adel Dinamling Balais of the CIDG.

Two others were from SAF Davao: Corporals Francis Paul Paner Amisola and Lues Lirk Zonio Catedral.

Fajardo said the administrative relief of the officials was done to give way to an impartial investigation to determine if there were lapses and violation of police operational procedures.

“They were administratively relieved to give way to the conduct of the investigation that will determine if there were lapses, if there were excesses or if there was negligence of supervision,”