4 Bulacan cops relieved over mistaken arrest of trader

MANILA, Philippines — Four police officers were relieved from their posts for the alleged mistaken arrest of a businessman in Bulacan, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said. “‘When you conduct an operation, you should be clear and correct with your target. You should study it thoroughly. There was a lack of intelligence work,” PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. told reporters in an interview in Camp Crame on Friday. “So, they are now in hot water. They’ve been relieved of their posts. They were assigned to the Regional Holding and Accounting Unit and facing administrative and criminal cases,” he added. READ: PNP: Cop under restrictive custody amid raps over jeepney driver slay The businessman was approached by three of the implicated officers and a confidential informant at the parking lot of a restaurant in Baliwag City last Thursday afternoon, according to a Police Regional Office Central Luzon (PRO 3) spot report. The officers allegedly “requested him (the businessman) to board a red Toyota Vios” and “did not present a warrant of arrest,” the spot report said. When the businessman resisted and called for help, several restaurant employees responded and prevented the officers from taking him, the police further explained. “Shortly thereafter, another [confidential informant] arrived, talked to him (the businessman), photographed his identification card and face and later realized that they had mistaken him for another person,” the spot report added. All officers and confidential informants in the operation left afterward. A follow-up PRO 3 spot report identified the three implicated officers as two police master sergeants and a staff sergeant assigned to the San Rafael Municipal Police Station. Meanwhile, Nartatez identified the fourth relieved police officer as the San Rafael town police chief, citing command responsibility. In another interview in Camp Crame later on Friday, PNP public information chief Col. Allen Rae Co maintained that the Baliwag City operation had a warrant but declined to provide further details. /mr