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Interior Secretary Eduardo Año called on the public Wednesday not to condemn the Philippine National Police (PNP) for the murders committed by a police officer in Tarlac last Sunday.
“The fault of some rotten police officers is not the fault of the entire 220,800 police organization (the wrongdoings of some police officers are not the fault of the entire 220,800 police organization),” he said in a statement Wednesday.
Senior MSgt. Jonel Nuezca shot and killed Sonya Gregorio and her son Frank Anthony during an argument in Paniqui, Tarlac.
Nuezca surrendered to the Rosales, Pangasinan police, hours later.
He was charged with two counts of murder and one administrative process for his dismissal.
The incident brought the country’s police force under severe criticism.
Ano urged the people not to condemn the entire PNP for what Nuezca did.
He described the officer as “a cold-blooded murderer and an embarrassment to the police profession.”
Año said that Nuezca stained the memory of 229 police officers who were killed “while fighting crime, drug traffickers and communist terrorists” since 2016.
“Now we will have to work doubly hard to rebuild the reputation of the police organization and institute more reforms to prevent a repeat of this incident,” he added.
The Philippines’ 12th best ranking in the 2020 Gallup Global Law & Order Poll and people’s trust in the police force were due “in large part” to the PNP’s intense anti-crime campaign, Year said.
It added that since March, 91,544 police officers had been leading the way in the campaign to stop the coronavirus pandemic.
A total of 8,735 PNP staff members were infected with the coronavirus and 27 police officers died from the disease.
Also Wednesday, Attorney General Menardo Guevarra said witnesses to the Tarlac shooting could apply for interim coverage under the government’s Witness Protection Program if they feel they are under threat.
Guevarra said that so far no one has applied for the program.
Nuezca has been charged by the Tarlac Provincial Prosecutor’s Office and no bail was recommended.
Guevarra said that the provincial prosecutor has found probable cause to charge Nuezca.
The incident was caught on camera and the video went viral on social media.
Members of the Philippine Conference of Catholic Bishops condemned the incident.
Bishop Enrique Macaraeg of Tarlac said the incident was just one of many murders that “have been taking place around us.”
“Whether it’s posted on social media or hidden without a witness, killing is a sin,” Macaraeg said. “The suspect was a man in charge of stopping the murders. Impunity has taken root when we saw the daughter, after having mocked the mother and son, walking away unaffected by the murder. “
The social action and justice arm of the Catholic Church also denounced the incident, saying that the killings “have no place in our society.”
Bishop José Collin Bagaforo of Kidapawan, national director of Caritas Philippines, said the killings were unacceptable.
“This bloodshed in broad daylight, witnessed by family members, should not have occurred in the first place if we had let peaceful reconciliation prevail, not the emotion of bad temper,” Bagaforo said.
Bishop Oscar Jaime Florencio of the Philippine Military Ordinariate said the incident was “unjustified.”
“It is a pity that we have dead people in this time of the pandemic and in the season around Christmas,” Florencio said.
Melvin Castro, from the Diocese of Tarlac, said that “the level of violence and brutality that we are witnessing now can only be compared to the years of martial law.”
AND WILLIAM B. DEPASUPIL
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