2 COPS SUED FOR ESCAPE OF DRUG SUSPECT

Two officers of the Central Police District (CPD) are now under fire for
their reported negligence, which led to the escape of a drug suspect from a
detention cell.

Director Ricardo de Leon, National Capital Region Police Office chief,
ordered the investigation of Senior Police Officer 4 Edgardo P. Reburiano
and Police Officer 2 Romeo Paday, deputy chief and desk officer,
respectively, of the CPDO-La Loma Station at the time of the incident.

The two were charged before the Quezon City Prosecutors Office with
violation of Article 224 of the Revised Penal Code (evasion through
negligence).

De Leon said his office will also determine if negligence was the sole
cause of the escape, or if the two policemen have connections with drug
syndicates.

An investigation report on the incident disclosed that during the physical
accounting of detention of prisoners in the station on June 3, 2004, it was
found out that the inmate, Narciso Prado, alias "Cisoy," who has a pending
illegal-drugs case at the Regional Court Branch 44 of Manila, and was not
eligible for bail, was nowhere to be found.

De Leon said the filing of administrative and criminal charges against
Reburiano and Paday should serve as a warning to scalawags in the force
even as he reiterated the NCRPO's thorough and unrelenting commitment to
the eradication of unscrupulous personalities from the ranks of the Metro
Manila police force.