DURING the weekly press conference conducted by the PNP-Defense Press Corps at The Royal Mandaya Hotel the other day the spokesperson of the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) P/Capt. Hazel Tuazon told members of the local media that relieved Toril Police Station commander P/Maj. Michael Uyanguren could face administrative charges as a consequence of the disappearance of her lady house help a little over a month ago.
The house help, one Justine Saldua, a native of Monkayo, Davao de Oro was reported by her parents missing after she was allegedly sent home by her employers the Uyanguren couple in the wee hours of early dawn.
According to the housemaid’s mother, she was informed by the Uyangurens, who, on separate occasions, went to their house in Monkayo, that her daughter was made to ride a taxi from the couple’s residence at around 1 a.m. to the bus terminal. But the mother, in a media interview, claimed that her daughter never reached home until the time she aired her complaint.
Adding to her fear that something untoward could have happened is that when she asked for proof that her daughter was indeed made to ride a taxi cab, she claimed she was told that there was not a single CCTV functioning in the neighborhood. And worst, she told the Davao media, her daughter was able to text an aunt saying that she was “sexually molested.”
Her revelations actually left in the public’s minds some questions that need to be answered. One is why was the poor house help sent to the bus terminal at an unholy hour when there are too many risks for a woman passenger. Second, was it coincidental that the CCTV cameras installed in the location were all not functioning?
Of course, the police official’s and that of his partner’s possible criminal liability is still far from the horizon. But the conduct of the investigation on the disappearance may eventually lead to it.
But why is there a stronger possibility of administrative charges? It is simply because a police officer who attains the rank of Major is, without doubt, one responsible person in the performance of his duties. And if one is such already, he is likely a responsible employer who could not have done any action or adopted decisions that will lead his employee, much more an unsuspecting house help, into the road of perdition.
But unfortunately for our policeman idol, he seemed to have done exactly what could be one irresponsible thing to do for an employer – let her take a taxi cab supposedly to the terminal in the dead of the night. And the official or her wife did not even bother to take down the plate number and the taxi company of the unit.
Those unusual lapses in judgment are definitely not expected of a police official or his partner if both really exercise what is expected of them as ideal employers. Now, more than ever, the DCPO legal officer should no longer look far and wide searching for a basis for filing the necessary administrative charges against the police officer. The police major apparently failed to extend his good performance in his station to his household.
We can only hope that our idol P/Maj. Uyanguren will be able to extricate himself from the possibility of being criminally implicated in the house help’s disappearance. If the investigation results will eventually find evidence to drag him, then it will be the end of his career and another dent in the already tarnished image of the police organization.
****************************
Well now, the cracks in the much-appreciated partnership of President Bongbong Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte (BBM-Sara) are fast showing. First, there was the sudden resignation of the Vice President from the Lakas-CMD Party controlled by Speaker Martin Romualdez over the sudden ousting of Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as Senior Deputy Speaker of the House. Arroyo is known as a close ally of the VP. Then there was some kind of reconciliation which apparently did not last long.
When the House scrutinized recently the budget of the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education (DepEd) the onslaught also started. The opposition including the Makabayan Bloc focused their attack on the huge 2022 confidential fund alleged to have been spent by the OVP in only 11 days.
While the “attackers” are up to now still unable to present evidence that there were wrongdoings in the fund utilization, they succeeded in instilling in the people’s minds the brashness in haste that the way the people’s money was used.
Now, with the House taking away the confidential and intelligence funds of the OVP and the education department, no less than the former President and the VP’s father seems to have smelled a veiled conspiracy hatched in the Lower House at the baton of Speaker Romualdez who the elder Duterte claims to be also eyeing the Presidency in the 2028 national elections.
The former President is demanding that the confidential funds of Congress disguised as PDAF be looked into. He even asks that the President’s own confidential and intelligence fund be also probed.
Where do you think this brewing imbroglio will lead to? Of course, the break-up of the BBM-Sara alliance. But “Let us to see,” to quote the late Davaoeno Senator Landring Almendras.
