Entire police force of Kalinga town sacked after bloody demolition

RIZAL, Kalinga -- The entire police force of this town was sacked more than two months after nine people were killed here when government agents tried to demolish squatters’ shanties.

Senior Supt. Villamor Bumanglag, regional deputy police director told newsmen all 31 members of the Rizal police force, including their chief, Senior Insp. Renato Cairel, have been removed from their posts.

The move, he said, was meant to dispel the notion that the police force of Rizal, where nine residents were killed when they fought it out with policemen during a demolition in the former Madrigal Hacienda last June 25, is biased.

At least 10 policemen were also hurt when the squatters, armed with high-powered firearms, resisted the demolition of their shanties.

Bumanglag said there have been complaints that the local policemen sided with a group involved in the land dispute so they installed a new police force in the area.

Cairel and his men were reportedly brought to the regional police headquarters at Camp Dangwa, Benguet “for training and reorientation.”

Following this, about 100 men if the Regional Mobile Group were deployed to Rizal particularly at the former Madrigal hacienda.

The issue over tenurial rights at the former hacienda now covers more than a thousand hectares.

The dispute has hounded the Rizal municipal government for 54 years even as the Supreme Court has resolved it.

The relief of Cairel and his men was criticized by former Rizal mayor Marcelo de la Cruz who, together with his son Chris Marc, was ambushed last Aug. 8 allegedly by Butbut tribesmen believed to be close relatives of the affected “squatters.”

Cairel said he could not understand why the Cordillera police command replaced Cairel and his men when they were doing their job to enforce the law.