The family of Joel Laroa, the victim of the hit-and-run incident involving an official of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit of the Quezon City Police District, wants the suspect and other police officers involved in the attempted “cover-up” of the incident to be dismissed from the service.
The victim’s sisters, Arlene Laroa Buenvenida, Annale Laroa Alba and Armida Laroa Carbonel, filed charges of grave misconduct, grave neglect of duty and conduct unbecoming of a police officer before the People’s Law Enforcement Board-QC against P/Lt. Col. Julio Abong, the owner of the vehicle that killed the tricycle driver.
According to their complaint, Abong, aboard his black Ford Ranger pick-up, hit their brother, and fled from the scene of the accident.
The Laroa sisters also accused Abong, along with the help of other policemen, for trying to cover-up the incident and pin the blame on a “fall guy” to shift the liability from the official.
The Laroa sisters filed a case against Station 3 Commander, P/Col. Alexander Barredo, and his subordinate, P/Cpl. Joan Vicente, for their failure to arrest Abong.
Cell phone video footage showed Barredo and Vicente along with another policeman were already standing beside Abong’s pick-up, but they made no arrest.
A case was also filed against traffic investigator P/SMS Jose Soriano for his direct participation in the alleged cover up.
According to the Laroa sisters, Soriano did not identify Abong as the driver of the vehicle. Instead, he initially mentioned in his report that the driver was “unknown” and subsequently identified a certain “Ronald Centino” as the driver of the pick-up, not Abong.
The Laroa sisters added that Soriano even made them sign the case/criminal complaint exculpating Abong and shifting the liability to Centino, without any explanation, and while they were still grieving.
According to the sister of the late tricycle driver, “If Abong had not let our brother die, we would have forgiven him. I hope he was taken to the hospital soon. But he didn’t do it. He even managed to cover up his crime through a grand cover-up by the police,” she added.
The QCPD, for its part, has resolved to endorse this case to the PLEB to allay concerns about any possible cover-up.
“Under my watch, we will never tolerate any wrongdoing from our personnel. We have relieved from his post P/Lt. Col. Abong from the CIDU. We will cooperate with the investigation of the PLEB. In fact, we will forward and endorse the results of our investigation to them, to ensure that there will be no whitewash here,” Gen. Nicolas Torre III, the newly appointed District Director of the QCPD, said.