You're in safe hands

You're in safe hands

By John Queripel

MANILA — In a bizarre case, police senior superintendent Teodorico Viduya has been charged with killing another officer, chief inspector Rocky Victoria, in Santa Lucia, Pasig, Metro Manila.

The shooting occurred after Viduya took exception to Victoria taking a parking spot he wanted. Aggrieved, he allegedly pulled his gun and pumped it into the back of Victoria, who was unaware that Viduya had pulled his gun. Viduya doesn't deny that he killed Victoria but says the deceased pulled his gun first.

During the shooting, Victoria's wife was sitting in their car next to her husband. She has charged two other officers who were accompanying Viduya with dereliction of duty for failing to do anything to stop the killing.

After charges were laid, Viduya was placed in the custody of the Philippine National Police Custodial Centre in Camp Crame (Manila). He was later seen wandering freely around the grounds of the camp, outside the custodial area.

Meanwhile interior and local governments secretary Rafael Alunan III has called for an extra 30,000 police to be trained to cope with the country's booming population. Stating that 4500 officers had been purged from the force in a clean-up, he said his aim was to make the Philippine National Police the top police force in Asia by the year 2000.

From GLW issue 173