By Glazyl Y. Masculino and Dolly Yasa
BACOLOD City – It’s alarming.
This was the reaction of Mayor Alfredo “Albee” Benitez following another discovery of mutilated human body parts here yesterday.
Based on police investigation, a tricycle driver found a plastic bag at Zone 3, Ilang-Ilang Street, Purok Riverside, Barangay Bata.
The bag contained a severed right hand of an unidentified person, and a piece of paper with the name of a policeman being implicated in illegal drugs as an alleged “pusher’ and “protector,” and involved in cockfighting, and robbery hold-ups, according to police reports.
Police Captain Francis Depasucat, head of Police Station 5, said that the police officer named in the paper left with the severed right hand is assigned to PS 5’s Station Drug Enforcement Team (SDET).
Depasucat said this personnel was reassigned to a new department in the police station while they are conducting a parallel investigation.
Depasucat said the incident may be a threat to the concerned policeman as he is an active anti-drug operative. He said that this police officer has no bad record in service and is doing his job well as mandated by law.
Meanwhile, Police Lieutenant Colonel Sherlock Gabana, public information officer of the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO), said this is the third incident involving mutilated body parts this year.
The first incident was reported in January, wherein two severed hands of an unidentified person, along with a list of alleged drug personalities were also found dumped in a garbage area in Barangay 2 here.
Two months later, a pair of severed human feet were also found dumped in front of an establishment along C.L. Montelibano, Barangay Villamonte here on March 29, purposely to allegedly harass some businessmen.
Gabana said they will thoroughly investigate who is behind these incidents and the owners of the severed body parts. They will also look into the cases if these are related.
The police said that they will conduct a background investigation to determine if these mutilated body parts were owned by individuals who were killed here or in other places.
“Whether the crime happened here or not. It is alarming,” Benitez said, as he stressed that the public wanted to see the results of the investigation.
Benitez, in a press briefing on Monday, April 17, said that he sent a text message to Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. to expedite the selection of a city director here.
“I sent a text message to Secretary Abalos to expedite the selection of our city director, so I am waiting for his response. We need somebody now,” Benitez said.
Police Colonel Thomas Joseph Martir, BCPO director, is set to retire from the service next month.
Benitez said that the city needs an efficient head who can discipline the police force and make sure that they can get results.
“Someone who is result-oriented and doesn’t take things lightly. We need somebody who can carry out the operations,” he added.
Benitez reiterated the need to activate force multipliers to augment the barangay watchmen and aid the policemen’s anti-criminality campaign.
On the statement of the police that the crime scene is somewhere else and not in Bacolod where the mutilated body parts were dumped, Benitez said it should be investigated and there should be results.
“Kabudlay man nga ako pa da masulod. Whether natabo di ang crime or wala natabo di ang crime, we cannot establish that because we don’t know where the crime happened, the mere fact nga may evidence sang body parts is already alarming. We need someone to be accountable,” Benitez said.
Benitez also said that “what we are looking for is a result-oriented city director, one who is efficient and thorough as well as know how to discipline our police force and know how to get results and doesn’t take these things lightly.”
“We can talk here as much as we want but at the end of the day ang tawo ga pangita result,” he added.
