Four Negros police instructors relieved for abusing trainee

At least four police trainers have been relieved over the alleged maltreatment of a policeman in Negros Occidental province. The four are held at Camp Aniceto Lacson in Victorias City over the alleged maltreatment of Police Officer 1 John Alfredo Maternal. Relieved last Friday were Police Officers 1 Johnson Quindo and Caron Mayor, news site Visayan Daily Star reported Saturday. Quindo and Mayor are both assistant instructors at the Philippine National Police SCOUT training unit. Relieved earlier were Police Officer 1 John Longno and a certain PO1 Desierto. Ironically, Longno himself had also been reported to be among 51 policemen who underwent maltreatment from instructors and trainers in November 2008. Western Visayas regional police director Chief Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao ordered the Regional Investigation and Detective Management Division to immediately conduct pre-charge evaluation of the complaints against the four police instructors. If there is probable cause to warrant the filing of administrative charges, they will be forwarded to the PNP Legal Service or Regional Internal Affairs Service for summary dismissal proceedings. Maternal, one of the 350 police undergoing a 45-day counter-insurgency training in Victorias City, had to be confined for almost three days at a hospital in Bacolod City. He supposedly suffered blunt abdominal trauma and hematoma in his abdomen, allegedly inflicted by his training instructors during the maltreatment. The training is being supervised by the PRO6 Regional Special Training Unit that was taken from the 6th Regional Mobile Group, after two incidents of maltreatment occurred in 2005 and 2008. Pagdilao said maltreatment and hazing are strictly prohibited in police training. "If you will allow that, it will be a cycle of violence," he said. Surprise medical check-ups on the health condition of PNP SCOUT trainees are being conducted after the reported maltreatment. - TJD, GMANews.TV