By Glazyl Y. Masculino
BACOLOD City – The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Nocppo) here denied the alleged brutality of some personnel of Silay City Police Station against a man arrested during a buy-bust at Barangay Mambulac on March 23, 2021.
The issue on the alleged police brutality came to fore after netizens reacted on a video posted on Facebook by a relative of 34-year-old Glenn Comawas showing a part of the buy-bust operation led by the city police force against him.
Comawas was arrested at the said village after police seized from him 12 grams of suspected shabu worth P81,600, lighter, the P500 marked money, and P500 boodle or fake money.
In the video, a woman was heard crying while asking the police to stop what they were doing, as Comawas was already seen pinned down by one of the police officers to the ground, while others were handcuffing him.
The woman in the video was shouting at policemen, “Indi na pagtapaki, kay wala na na gabato, wala na na gani gabato, ginasakit niyo pa na (Don’t step on him, he is not resisting, he’s not resisting but you’re still hurting him).”
The video was shared more than 2,600 times and got more than 1,300 views as of this writing.
In response, Police Lieutenant Abegael Donasco, Nocppo’s deputy information officer, said that the video was incomplete because only a portion of the drug bust was posted on social media and not the whole scenario.
Donasco said that it was not shown in the video how one of the police operatives got wounded when Comawas allegedly resisted arrest and grappled with the law enforcer.
Donasco said there was a strong resistance on the part of the suspect that prompted the policemen to use necessary force on Comawas.
“The operatives had to use the necessary force to subdue and neutralize the suspect, or else he will be able to escape,” she added.
Despite the public criticism on policemen, Donasco said the police operatives are still on duty and doing their mandate on the campaign against illegal drugs.
Donasco said the incident is now being investigated and they are waiting if the Comawas’s family will be pursuing a formal complaint against the police operatives.
In case a complaint will be filed, Donasco said that the Provincial Internal Affairs Service (PIAS) will investigate for due process.
