Mugshot of Staff Sgt. Charlito Tinoy. (Photo courtesy of IMEG)
MANILA – Members of the anti-scalawag unit of the Philippine National Police (PNP) arrested a police officer and three others for engaging in cockfighting in Cebu City.
In a report to PNP chief, Gen. Archie Gamboa on Monday, Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (IMEG) chief, Brig. Gen. Ronald Lee said Staff Sgt. Charlito Sanchez Tinoy was arrested while betting on an illegal cockfighting game in Sudlon, Lahug, Cebu City on Sunday afternoon.
Lee said Tinoy was previously arrested for illegal gambling.
“We're intensifying our monitoring of policemen involved in all forms of illegal activities and assure the public that we will apprehend them as soon as we have built enough evidence against them. We must make it clear that Gen. Gamboa has a strict zero-tolerance policy against police officers who continue to tarnish the good reputation and image of the majority of the police force,” Lee said in a media statement.
Undercover officers of the IMEG Visayas Field United and the Regional Special Operations Group Regional Intelligence Division, in coordination with the Cebu Police Provincial Office, raided cockfighting games taking place in the area.
Persons going inside the compound were also monitored to be violating safe physical distancing rules and were not wearing face masks which are blatant violations of enhanced community quarantine which is in effect in the city.
Recovered during the raid were cockfighting paraphernalia including gaffs, cash bets, and several fighting cocks while the policeman and the three civilians caught in the area were taken to the PNP-IMEG office in Visayas Field Unit for documentation and filing of criminal charges.
Lee called on the public to report the presence of the PNP personnel involved in any irregularities to the PNP IMEG Hotlines: SMART- 09989702286 or GLOBE- 09957952569. Information may also be forwarded to its Facebook Page: Integrity Monitoring Enforcement Group.
“There will be no respite in the crackdown against scalawags amid the enhanced community quarantine against Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019). We’re intensifying our monitoring of policemen involved in all forms of illegal activities and assure the public we will apprehend them as soon as we have enough evidence against them," Lee said.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government earlier said cockfighting remains prohibited under the general community quarantine and the modified general community quarantine. (PNA)
