Escalante Mayor Melecio Yap’s quest for justice after the National Police Commission suspended his administrative and operational control over the Escalante police force got support from the Negros Occidental Sangguniang Panlalawigan Committee on Peace and Order and the Carmelite friars.

Board Member Renato Gustilo, chairperson of the SP Committee on Peace and Order, yesterday said his committee supports the leadership of Yap, as he accused Chief Supt. Cipriano Querol, regional police director of Western Visayas, of engaging in “witch hunting” and a “fishing expedition” for accusing Yap of supporting the New People’s Army, providing guns to eliminate Carapali Lualhati - Revolutionary Proletarian Army commander, and forging a tactical alliance with the Northern Negros Alliance of Human Rights Advocates.

Gustilo, in a privilege speech delivered during the SP regular session held in Valladolid yesterday dismissed the claims of Querol against Yap as “baseless”.

The Napolcom resolution dated July 15, ordered the suspension of the administrative and operational control of Yap over the police, citing numerous extra-judicial killings in Escalante City, and his alleged close association with the NPA, based on a “confidential report” of Querol.

Yap vehemently denied the accusations and cried foul over his suspension, saying he was not accorded the right to due process.

If Querol can do it to Yap, he probably can do it to other mayors in Negros Occidental, too, Gustilo said.

“He (Querol) is a leftover of the Martial Law syndrome”, he also claimed.

The Carmelite Friars in Escalante, in a statement, a copy of which was furnished the DAILY STAR, also condemned the Napolcom resolution, which they called “unfair and unjust”.

The statement signed by Carmelite Friars Jerry Sabado, Gilbert Billena, Gabriel Dolotina and Harry Blooms, also said the suspension of Yap by Napolcom, without giving him the benefit of an impartial and objective investigation, is also a gross injustice, not only to him, but also to the people of Escalante.

In the absence of guidelines from the Napolcom to suspend the deputation of Mayor Yap, Senior Supt. Allan Guisihan, Negros Occidental police director, said the mayor still has the administrative and operational control of the Escalante police.

The Carmelite Friars asked “If Querol sees NNHRA (chaired by Carmelite priest Gilbert Billena) as a communist group, does it also follow that Mayor Yap has to be punished because he is supportive of its cause?”

The Carmelite priests said they were already alarmed by the act of tagging NNHRA as a communist group, and said it consequently endangers the life and security of Billena, and its secretary general, Bernardo Patigas.*GPB

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