Duterte orders filing of charges vs Iloilo lawmaker, mayor over mauling incident

President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday ordered Interior Secretary Eduardo Año to file direct assault charges against two politicians in Iloilo province involved in the alleged mauling of a policeman.

Duterte gave the directive in a media interview after he visited the wake of slain Ako Bicol party-list Representative Rodel Batocabe in Daraga, Albay.

The President initially said he would ask Año, who has supervision over local government units, to investigate the incident only to change his mind moments later.

“I will ask General Año to take a look, investigate. I am not urging him. I am ordering him to file a case against the two,” Duterte said.

According to the Western Visayas Police, Guimbal town Mayor Oscar Garin and his son Iloilo First District Representative Richard Garin early Wednesday morning disarmed, handcuffed, slapped, and spat on PO3 Federico Macaya whom they summoned in relation to a certain case.

The Garins allegedly got upset after the victim in a mauling incident on December 22, which involved a son of a Sangguniang Bayan member of Guimbal town, refused to press charges.

Macaya was the investigator of the case.

Congressman Garin has apologized for the incident and said that his action was directed not at the Philippine National Police (PNP) but a "mere display of extreme frustration" over a single police officer's supposed disservice to the people.

Still, Western Visayas Police Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao said charges of physical injuries, alarm and scandal, direct assault against a person in authority and grave coercion will be filed against the Garins.

"I have nothing personal against the Garins but I have grounds and responsibility to support my personnel and to protect and uplift the image of the police organization," Bulalacao said.

Bulalacao has relieved Police Senior Inspector Antonio Monreal, chief of the Guimbal Municipal Police Station for his failure to arrest the Garins and recalled Congressman Garin’s police escorts.

The PNP also said it will also request from the Department of Interior and Local Government the cancellation of Mayor Garin's authority over the policemen of Guimbal Municipal Police Station. — BAP, GMA News