Chief Insp. Leo Ajero, city police director, in his urgent motion addressed to Judge George Jabido of the Regional Trial Court Branch 18 based in Midsayap, North Cotabato, said that the local PNP has no jurisdiction over the case filed against Floro Allado, former mayor of Banisilan town also in North Cotabato.
“The crime was committed in Banisilan, a town in the first district of North Cotabato, which we do not have any jurisdiction, at all,” Ajero stressed.
Allado has been detained at the Kidapawan City PNP detention cell since November 2 last year when he voluntarily surrendered to authorities after he allegedly killed four Maguindanaon Moro and injured six others in an ambush in Poblacion, Banisilan.
Allado, PO2 Dindo Celarta and two other PNP officers were accused of masterminding the ambush. But the two have already been committed to the provincial jail in Barangay Amas here
Ajero first wrote Jabido a letter on March this year urging him to issue a commitment order for the transfer of the accused to another prison cell. A few weeks later, Jabido ordered the transfer of Allado from Ajero’s custody to the provincial jail.
Allado’s lawyers, however, filed an urgent motion for reconsideration, saying their clients would not feel safe if they were inside the provincial jail.
The court listened to the appeal and the two stayed inside the city PNP station.
Four months later, Jabido issued an order urging Sr. Supt. Federico Dulay, North Cotabato provincial police director, to effect the transfer of Allado and Celarta from the Kidapawan City PNP to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) here.
However, Insp. Buenaventura Pedrita, city jail warden, refused to lock Allado and Celarta inside the jail for lack of jurisdiction.
“It would be a violation of the BJMP existing rules and regulations and to our Standard Operating Procedures as we have no jurisdiction over the accused,” said Pedrita.
This prompted Ajero to again write an urgent appeal to the judge for the immediate transfer of the two murder suspects.
Allado and Celarta can be placed at the BJMP in Pigcawayan, a town at the first district, or at the North Cotabato provincial jail, Ajero said.
But Allado, in his motion, said that for security reasons, he preferred to stay inside the PNP detention cell here.
He fears that the relatives of those killed in the Nov. 2 ambush in Banisilan would retaliate. For him, the safest place where he could be detained while his case is being heard is here.
“But we could no longer keep Allado and Celarta here forever. All the while we thought their stay here at the station is just temporary, while the court has yet to decide the place where he should be detained. It’s almost 10 months and they’re still staying here,” lamented Ajero. (Malu Cadelina Manar / MindaNews)