A police precinct commander in General Santos City was sacked from his post after he was accused of beating up four of his men while allegedly under the influence of liquor.
Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said a thorough investigation is now also being done to determine the administrative cases that could be filed against Police Captain Nemecio Calipjo Jr, the erstwhile commander of the Police Precinct 8 of the General Santos City police.
The complaint was lodged by Calipjo's four subordinates who accused him of assaulting them allegedly for failure of the police station to immediately address the complaints lodged by one of his close friends.
One of the complainants alleged that the incident happened at around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 31, when Calipjo arrived supposedly drunk at the police precinct.
The complainant claimed the police precinct chief ordered his men to be at formation in front of the precinct and, holding an M-16 rifle, started castigating and threatening to kill them.
Calipjo allegedly punched and slapped his subordinates while castigating them for about an hour and the rifle he was wielding even accidentally went off when he set it down. It was claimed that the precinct commander was angry at his men for their alleged inaction on the concern brought to them by a resident close to Calipjo.
“All police commanders should set good leadership examples to their men and what Police Capt. Calipjo, based on the initial report I received, was clearly a breach of discipline and violation of PNP rules and regulations,” said Eleazar.
“Hindi ko hahayaan na ganitong uri ng pulis ang mamumuno sa mga komunidad dahil kung hindi niya kayang sundin ang aming patakaran at irespeto ang kanyang kapwa pulis, malamang ay hindi rin niya kayang irespeto ang mga karapatan ng ating mga sibilyang kababayan (I will not allow this kind of police commander to lead because if he could not respect his fellow policemen, it is possible that he could not also respect the rights of the civilians)," he added.
Eleazar said if proven true, Calipjo’s actions will not be tolerated by the PNP leadership, adding that the police official would face serious sanctions over his actions.
The Internal Affairs Service is expected to conduct its own investigation of the incident to determine the administrative cases that would be filed against Calipjo.