Thirteen personnel from the Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG), including its Metro Manila chief, have been relieved from their posts following an uncoordinated raid on a Bureau of Customs (BOC) warehouse in Bulacan where officials were destroying confiscated goods.
HPG Regional Highway Patrol Unit-National Capital Region Chief Colonel Joey Tomas Caise was among those sacked alongside 12 other officers, comprising three higher-ranking personnel and nine lower-ranked operatives.
The relieved personnel were reassigned to the Human Resource Management and Doctrine Development-Personnel Holding and Accounting Section as an impartial investigation into the incident gets underway.
“The PNP-HPG recognizes the seriousness of the allegations and has taken immediate steps to ensure that the incident is properly investigated,” the HPG said in a statement, promising appropriate action and due process based on the findings.
The relief orders stem from an incident last week when HPG operatives in civilian attire swooped down on a BOC warehouse in Bulacan while customs personnel were actively incinerating seized smuggled cigarettes.
BOC chief of staff and spokesman Chris Noel Bendijo described the raid as “unacceptable,” pointing out that the HPG officers frisked uniformed customs personnel even after they introduced themselves.
“That was very dangerous especially because we’re both from the government. It could have been done better, in a much safer manner,” Bendijo said, adding that the HPG operatives were actually targeting a different location for their operation.
The standoff was eventually defused after the intervention of BOC Deputy Commissioners Nolasco Bathan and Emmanuel Luis Licup, both retired police generals, who clarified that the cigarette disposal was a legitimate customs operation.
While the BOC stated it does not intend to turn the incident into a larger issue, it emphasized the urgent need for better operational coordination between enforcement agencies to ensure personnel safety.