Admin proceedings up vs two cops tagged in botched murder

By Jennifer P. Rendon

The Police Regional Office (PRO)-6 has started its own investigation on the administrative culpability, if there are any, of the two policemen tagged in the failed killing of a suspected robber in Leganes, Iloilo.

Brigadier General Leo Francisco, Western Visayas police chief, said that the Regional Investigation and Detective Management Division (RIDMD) is probing Master Sergeant Jessie Jim Rubio and Staff Sergeant Enrico Gonzales.

Francisco earlier ordered the relief of the two officers from the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) and assigned them to the PRO-6 Regional Personnel Holding Accounting Section (RPHAS).

They were also disarmed and will not be allowed to perform the usual duties of a police officer.

“We just wanted to make sure that they won’t influence the ongoing investigation undertaken by the Iloilo Police Provincial Office,” he said.

Francisco claimed the two beleaguered cops have not asked any help from his office or any PRO-6 unit for their legal woes.

If ever they would, the region’s top cop said they could only help if they are wrongly accused.

“And during the course of our own investigation, malalaman din namin ang totoo,” he said.

In a press conference on Monday, Rubio and Gonzales both denied laying a hand on their accuser, Glen Paloma.

Both claimed they had not met him except for Rubio who served an arrest warrant against Paloma for robbery in 2014.

Following Paloma’s complaint, Rubio and Gonzales were charged with frustrated murder and planting of evidence, which is in violation of Section 29, Article II of Republic Act of 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act) before the Iloilo Provincial Prosecutors Office.

The case accused six suspects of allegedly trying to summarily execute Paloma. He was found wounded at a rice field at Barangay Calaboa, Leganes on March 26, 2023.