SWAT duo suspended

TWO Filipino police officers who were caught on camera beating a 29-year-old Papua New Guinean have been relieved of duties while an investigation is being carried out into their conduct, a local newspaper reported.
The Sun Star reported on Monday that the two officers from the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) police filed a complaint with the Cebu city prosecutor’s office on Monday afternoon against Bennidict Penini.
The newspaper said the two, police officers Phillip James Tanza and Bradford Lavandero, will now be reporting to the Office of the City Director’s holding unit in the Cebu city police office.
The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) will conduct a separate investigation on the two officers.
The Department of Foreign Affairs is waiting for the investigation report from the CHR.
Penini, an information technology student, was subdued by the officers after he allegedly ran amok in Barangay Banilad, Cebu city, on Sunday.

Lavandero and Tanza filed a direct assault of a person in authority complaint against him, saying he threw stones at them during the incident. Prosecutor Aida Sanchez lowered the complaint from direct assault to resistance to arrest.
Sanchez told reporters there wasn’t enough evidence to support the more serious charge.
Penini, assisted by lawyer Fritz Lastimoso, opted not to file a counter-affidavit to answer the police officers’ allegations.
Lastimoso said Penini would talk to his parents about the possibility of having the case settled outside court.
Around 11.30am last Sunday, Lavandero and Tanza received a radio message telling them to support two police mobile patrol teams that responded to a trouble alarm outside Alicia Towers in Barangay Banilad.
When they arrived, they saw Penini allegedly throwing stones at a group of bystanders.
“We approached the said foreign national and introduced ourselves as police officers and instructed the same to put down the stones,” they said in their joint affidavit.
“But instead of obeying, (Penini) became more aggressive and threw stones at us.”
Afterwards, Penini allegedly struck a stone on the jaw of taxi driver, Giovanni Catib.
“Sensing that (Penini) could no longer be handled in a diplomatic manner, we decided to apply tolerable force against him,” the police officers’ affidavit reads.
Catib, 33, failed to file a complaint against Penini on Monday. He was caught on camera kicking Penini.
In a phone interview, Primo Cadampog of the CHR-Central Visayas, said it was clear from the ABS-CBN video that the two officers kept hitting Penini even after he had calmed down.
“That was an unnecessary act,” he said, adding that the CHR still had to get the statements of both parties.
Before Penini allegedly ran amok, he was arguing with another Papua New Guinea national. When the other person left, Penini allegedly started throwing stones at passers-by and kept shouting.
An ABS-CBN Cebu crew covering the incident shot the video footage of Tanza and Lavandero hitting the head and body of Penini, who was lying on the sidewalk, with the butt of their rifles. – Sun Star Cebu