DILG orders charges vs 17 cops in ‘hazing’ incident

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo on Thursday ordered the filing of criminal and administrative charges against 17 police officers for their alleged involvement in a hazing incident in Laguna. The investigation stemmed from two video clips of the hazing incident presented by the Commission on Human Rights to Philippine National Police chief Director General Raul Bacalzo on Wednesday. “These violators can’t call themselves law enforcers as they have no place in the police service. They can neither protect human rights nor uphold the rule of law if they themselves are the first ones who would transgress them, inflicting torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment to young police recruits and using the police camps as their torture training grounds," Robredo said. The hazing allegedly happened at Camp Eldridge in Los Baños, Laguna. Robredo said he was surprised by the footage, saying he was not aware that hazing is still being practiced inside police camps in the country. "When I saw the videos provided to us by the CHR, I learned that there are still officers who are bold enough to defy the law and tolerate institutional hazing and torture," he said. Robredo said two of the police officers ordered charged were Senior Inspector Leopoldo Ferrer Jr. and Senior Inspector Klinto Rex Jamorol, the immediate superiors of the other embroiled lawmen. Ferrer is the commanding officer of the 1st Maneuver Company of the Regional Public Safety Battalion (RPSB), while Jamorol is the course director of the PNP Special Counter-insurgency Operation Unit Training (SCOUT). The following policemen were seen in one of the video clips forcing recruits to drink a "chili solution" and lick an RPSB logo inside the police camp: