CA voids suspension of ‘euro general’

The Court of Appeals has overturned the preventive suspension of a Philippine National Police budget officer for his alleged involvement in the so-called Euro Generals mess. The CA Fourth Division found as insufficient the Office of the Ombudsman's justification of the six-month preventive suspension of Chief Superintendent Tomas Rentoy III, director of the PNP Budget Division. “Even the [Ombudsman], in its comment, only made generalized allegations of the discretionary power of the Ombudsman to issue the preventive suspension and the supposed strong evidence of guilt against Rentoy III, without specifically pointing out or enumerating the acts on which the preventive suspension was based," said the 14-page decision written by Associate Justice Josefina Guevarra-Salonga. In September last year, the Ombudsman preventively suspended Rentoy and five other PNP officials while they were being investigated for their controversial trip to Russia in 2008. But in December, the CA issued a temporary restraining order preventing the implementation of the suspension. Aside from Rentoy, those suspended were Special Disbursing Officer Samuel Rodriguez, Finance Service Director Orlando Pestaño, Police Superintendent Elmel Pelobello, Directorate for Human Resources and Doctrine Development Director German Doria, and Directorate for Operations Director Silverio Alarcio. The six officers are facing charges of grave misconduct, dishonesty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service for their allegedly anomalous trip to Moscow for the 77th International Police Organization (Interpol) General Assembly in 2008. The suspension order did not cover all 11 police officials who came along for the trip because some of them have retired, including former police Director Eliseo dela Paz, the group’s disbursement officer. Dela Paz and his wife were briefly detained and interrogated at the Moscow International Airport for carrying 105,000 euros (P6.9 million) that they failed to declare. It was later found out that the former PNP comptroller carried P9.2 million— P2.9 million for travel expenses and P6.9 million for contingencies. - KBK, GMA News