Cop goes viral for alleged ‘maltreatment’ of two minors

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – The Police Regional Office (PRO)-6 will investigate the case of a policeman accused of hitting two minors at Barangay 30 here over his damaged car.

Police Brigadier General Sidney Villaflor, PRO-6 director, said he will wait for concrete evidence before commenting on the incident.

“I don’t want to give a comment right now. It has to be investigated judiciously,” he said.

The cop is a personnel of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Nocppo) here, particularly assigned to the 1st Negros Occidental Provincial Mobile Force Company.

A copy of a closed circuit television (CCTV) camera footage showing a man confronting and hitting a minor went viral on social media this week. The incident happened evening of July 10.

In fact, it reached the attention of Senator Raffy Tulfo after the minors and their guardians reported the incident to the latter’s radio/online program on July 11.

“Hindi komo nag viral, eh iyon na iyon. Iyong iba kasi ang intention ng nagbi-video ay i-erase ang content and itira iyong part na masama ang pulis” Villaflor said.

Based on the investigation of Police Station 6, the two minors were playing on the street when one of them allegedly threw a stone and hit the cop’s vehicle that was parked in the area.

This allegedly irked the policeman, prompting the latter to confront the minors.

Police Captain Dax Santillan, head of Police Station 6, said the minors accompanied by their guardians complained that the police officer allegedly mauled them.

Santillan said the case is currently being handled by the village chief, in an attempt to settle the dispute of both parties at the barangay level.

Santillan said that if one of the parties would like to file a case, then that’s the time that they will act on it by providing assistance to the complainant out of respect for the mandate of barangay officials.

He said the police officer has not filed a complaint at the police station regarding the stoning incident.

He said they also based their investigation on the actual complaint since the CCTV did not capture clearly the persons involved because it was too far.

Meanwhile, Villaflor reminded cops to do good in their jobs.

“Pag ikaw ay nagtatrabaho ng maayos, you will be commended, pero if you do bad things, mapaparusahan ka,” he said.