Eleazar orders junking of raps vs. woman in vaccine-slot-sale scam

PNP chief Police General Guillermo Eleazar on Saturday ordered the withdrawal of charges against businesswoman Nina Ellaine Dizon-Cabrera who was included in the complaints filed by the police over vaccine-slot-sale scheme.

In a statement, Eleazar said the PNP’s legal team concluded that the businesswoman should not have been included in the criminal complaint filed before the Mandaluyong Prosecutor's Office against Cyle Bonifacio and Melvin Polo Gutierrez.

“I already instructed the CIDG (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group) to withdraw the cases filed against her before the Mandaluyong City Prosecutor’s Office the soonest possible time. The cases against Cyle Cedric Bonifacio and Melvin Gutierrez remain,” Eleazar said.

Likewise, the PNP chief ordered the relief of the Chief of the CIDG Eastern Metro Manila District Field Unit, Police Lieutenant Colonel Arnold Moleta over his “lapse of judgment and for command responsibility in the conduct of investigation.”

“Ang mali ay mali at hindi dapat pinaninindigan. Sa halip, ito ay itinatama upang hindi na maulit, at upang kapulutan din ng aral para maging maayos ang pagsisilbi sa taumbayan,” he said.

[A wrong deed is wrong, and must not be justified. It must be corrected, and the lessons we learn from it must help the police serve the people better.]

“Let this serve as a reminder to all our personnel that if you are assigned to do a task, always make sure that you do your best, and do it right,” he added.

Moreover, Eleazar said the incident won't affect the PNP’s drive against those who are taking advantage of government’s vaccination program.

In  a statement on Twitter, Dizon-Cabrera expressed relief over the dropping of the charges against her, and thanked Eleazar for "taking a hard look at the obvious facts without bias or malice."

But still, she asked the PNP chief to apologize to her "for the lapses that caused the name I built for years to be tarnished."

Before the charges against her were dropped,  Dizon-Cabrera on Thursday said she is mulling a counter complaint against the police for including her in the complaint over vaccine slot scam.

Earlier, Cabrera took to Twitter to air how she was "dragged into the scheme", exposing screenshots on May 21 of her conversation with one of those allegedly selling vaccine slots.

Last month, Cabrera posted her online exchanges with a person offering her vaccine slots.

Based on the messages, the unidentified facilitator of vaccine slots is offering Cabrera two doses of Sinovac vaccines for P6,000.

For Pfizer doses, the unknown seller is offering a slot for complete vaccination for P12,000.

But Cabrera said she already turned down the offer and sent screenshots of her conversation to the local government to investigate.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Arnold Moleta earlier said Cabrera was included in the charge sheet because of the screenshots she posted on her Twitter account. —LBG/MDM, GMA News