BOI yet to submit final report on Samar misencounter to PNP chief
Published Aug 21, 2018 03:27 pm
By Aaron Recuenco
Barely two months after the alleged misencounter between soldiers and policemen in Samar that left six cops dead and nine others wounded, the Board of Inquiry (BOI) has yet to submit the result of its findings to the leadership of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde (PCOO / MANILA BULLETIN)
PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said he has not received the final report of the BOI which he had ordered to be created to look into the circumstances of why soldiers allegedly ambushed a group of policemen conducting a commando training in a remote area of Sta. Rita town on June 25.
“They said there is already a report but I have not read it yet. It is yet to be submitted to my office,” said Albayalde.
The BOI is headed by Director Rolando Felix, head of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations (DIPO)-Visayas with seven members who are senior officials of various units which include the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and the Intelligence Group.
Based on initial information obtained, a platoon-size personnel of the Regional Mobile Force Battalion was heading toward Sitio Canunay in Barangay Rosal, Sta. Rita town when they were fired upon by another group of armed men.
The armed men who engaged the elite troops turned out to be elements of the 87th Infantry Battalion who have been conducting combat operation mission in the area for the past six days.
The military initially blamed the police for failure to establish the coordination protocol while the police, in turn, said what the soldiers did was clearly an ambush since they should have known that the cops were friendlies due to their uniform.
Several police and military officials were already sacked after the incident.
Earlier, Albayalde said that the BOI investigation could take at least one or two weeks to finish. The military has also created an investigating team to look into the incident.
The plan of both the military and the police leaderships is to come up with a joint statement once the final report is done but the plan apparently changed when President Duterte assumed full responsibility of the incident and asked both the police and the military to move on instead.
Albayalde said he would publish the findings once the final report reaches his office and read the entirety of the report.
He then explained that the reason on the delay of the submission is that the officials who were tasked to craft the BOI final report on Samar misencounter are the very same police officials who are also investigating the communist rebel raid on a police station also in Samar.
PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde (PCOO / MANILA BULLETIN)
PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said he has not received the final report of the BOI which he had ordered to be created to look into the circumstances of why soldiers allegedly ambushed a group of policemen conducting a commando training in a remote area of Sta. Rita town on June 25.
“They said there is already a report but I have not read it yet. It is yet to be submitted to my office,” said Albayalde.
The BOI is headed by Director Rolando Felix, head of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations (DIPO)-Visayas with seven members who are senior officials of various units which include the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and the Intelligence Group.
Based on initial information obtained, a platoon-size personnel of the Regional Mobile Force Battalion was heading toward Sitio Canunay in Barangay Rosal, Sta. Rita town when they were fired upon by another group of armed men.
The armed men who engaged the elite troops turned out to be elements of the 87th Infantry Battalion who have been conducting combat operation mission in the area for the past six days.
The military initially blamed the police for failure to establish the coordination protocol while the police, in turn, said what the soldiers did was clearly an ambush since they should have known that the cops were friendlies due to their uniform.
Several police and military officials were already sacked after the incident.
Earlier, Albayalde said that the BOI investigation could take at least one or two weeks to finish. The military has also created an investigating team to look into the incident.
The plan of both the military and the police leaderships is to come up with a joint statement once the final report is done but the plan apparently changed when President Duterte assumed full responsibility of the incident and asked both the police and the military to move on instead.
Albayalde said he would publish the findings once the final report reaches his office and read the entirety of the report.
He then explained that the reason on the delay of the submission is that the officials who were tasked to craft the BOI final report on Samar misencounter are the very same police officials who are also investigating the communist rebel raid on a police station also in Samar.