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.