AFP chief vows justice for cops killed in Samar misencounter

June 27, 2018

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Carlito Galvez vowed justice for the policemen killed in an alleged misencounter in Samar province as he visited their wake on Wednesday.

Galvez said the AFP may relieve military commanders of the Army unit involved in the misencounter if the investigation probes their possible lapses.

“If we see that there are lapses, justice will be done, that is our promise, so if we really see that there are lapses on the commanders then we will (relieve them), we will,” he said.

“As for the moment we cannot say anything because we are waiting for the result of the investigation we don’t want to influence unnecessarily on the result,” Galvez added.

Galvez said because of the investigation the 16 Army personnel involved in the encounter were disarmed and subjected for further questioning.

“They are now under investigation. They are now disarmed, then their firearms will be subjected to ballistics and then they will subjected to further questioning,” he said.

Col. Noel Detoyato, AFP public affairs chief, said Galvez visited the wake of the slain policemen with Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Albayalde in Samar Wednesday.

“On the part of the Armed Forces, we want to sympathize with the families, first thing why we went here is really to console and to give our full support to the PNP,” said Galvez.

Before visiting the wake, Detoyato said the PNP and AFP chief visited the wounded policemen at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center in Tacloban City.

Galvez said because of the incident, the military and police are planning to conduct “future joint campaign planning” and “joint interagency training”.

“I talked with the Chief PNP earlier and we discussed the conduct of future joint campaign planning (between the military and police) our plans are integrated, second we will also have joint interagency training,” he said.

“We have an existing (one) but we will make more elaborate,” Galvez added. Robina Asido/DMS