UPDATE: PNP data shows that close to 5,000 police officers have already been dismissed from service since President Duterte took office in 2016.
Philippine National Police chief PGen Debold Sinas is expected to “readily” sign and approve the dismissal of Jonel Nuezca, the police officerin Tarlac, once the formal findings arrive on his table, according to the agency’s spokesperson.
Calls for Nuezca’s immediate discharge from the police force surfaced after he shot at point-blank range his neighbors, 52-year-old Sonya Gregorio and her 25-year-old son Frank Anthony Gregorio, on Sunday afternoon in Paniqui town. “Because of the previous altercations, there was already a heated argument arising before he came to the place of the scene of the crime itself. Accordingly, one of the family members sort of doing some fireworks or firecrackers and Sgt Nuezca went to the place, and he had an argument in the process. One thing led to another,” he explained.
“Although he was off-duty then, the fact that he went to the place and apparently already trying to create an impression that as a police officer who would be arresting the guy… this is something that didn’t sit well with our procedures,” he added.