SEN. Ronald dela Rosa has asked the Senate to look into what he said were alleged “inhumane, violent, and highly irregular” acts of the PNP and “unknown persons” in serving a preventive order suspension on Mayor Samson Dumanjug of Bonifacio, Misamis Occidental last month.
In filing Senate Resolution No. 698, Dela Rosa said he wants to know the circumstances why the police, allegedly together with unidentified men, had to “forcibly eject” Dumanjug from his office last June 16.
Dela Rosa said the policemen were even wearing full-battle gear and were equipped with high-powered rifles.
The senator said he has received a letter from Dumanjug supposedly saying that while the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Misamis Occidental has come out with a series of issuances ordering his preventive suspension from October 2022 to May 2023, some of the decisions were allegedly served by the local PNP and provincial servers and some were “never implemented” by the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the provincial government.
“He attested that the PNP personnel physically broke the windows of his office, disarmed and ordered his police escort to lie face down on the floor, then aimed high-powered firearms at him, forced him to a wheelchair, bound his hands and feet to the said wheelchair, wrapped his head with a ‘malong’ and boarded him to an ambulance,” Dela Rosa said in the resolution.
He said Dumanjug had also said that he was not apprised of the reason and purpose of the violent and inhumane acts by the police and their civilian buddies.
The mayor was only allegedly informed that he was being charged of Resistance and Disobedience to a Person in Authority and Prolonging Performance of Duties and Powers during the booking procedures.
Dela Rosa said such an act against an elected official is “very alarming” since the perpetrators were policemen “who vowed to serve and protect the Filipino people.”
“Incidents of violence, abuse of power, and extrajudicial actions by law enforcement personnel not only erode public trust in the institutions tasked with ensuring public safety, but also create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation with our communities (as well),” he added.
He said the investigation will review the current operating guidelines and protocols in the PNP’s performance of their duties.
Misamis Occidental Gov. Henry Oaminal has said that Dumanjug and his wife, Vice Mayor Evelyn Dumanjug, also of Bonifacio town, were slapped with a 60-day preventive suspension for alleged “betrayal of public trust” on May 30, which was five days before the expiration of the six-month order they have been serving.
The Sangguniang Panlalawigan has earlier meted the couple with a six-month preventive suspension for alleged abuse of authority, graft and corruption, misconduct, and dishonesty in 2020.
The couple appealed the decision before the Office of the President which reversed the decision and reinstated them on May 29.
Oaminal said the new suspension order stemmed from a different case filed this year allegedly for betrayal of public trust “and one of these is usurpation of public functions.”
“In short, what was implemented by the governor on May 30, when I issued the implementing order, was already a case of 01-23 which I filed in 2023, no longer having any relation to the cases filed in 2022, so this order was properly served,” Oaminal said.
Oaminal said the couple holed up in the mayor’s office which they supposedly padlocked to prevent authorities from serving the suspension order.
This, the governor explained, prompted the provincial government to activate the Incident Command System (ICS) to manage the situation at the Bonifacio town hall.
Oaminal later instructed the local police to maintain peace and order in the town hall and force the Dumanjug couple and other unauthorized people to vacate the premises so that the acting mayor and vice mayor can discharge their duties.
