Hinigaran Mayor Jose Nadie Arceo said on Tuesday, April 5, that he filed complaints against a police general and two Criminal Investigation and Detection Group officers assigned in Bacolod City for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, Omnibus Election Code and for grave misconduct before the Office of the Ombudsman.
Named in the complaints filed on March 31 were Police Brig. Gen. Randy Peralta – CIDG deputy director for operations, and Maj. Chris Arthemius Devaras and Cpl. Vicente Bantillo of the CIDG Bacolod Field Office, Arceo’s lawyers Victorio Torrecampo Jr. and Rey Gorgonio said.
Arceo’s lawyers are asking Ombudsman Samuel Martires to place Peralta under preventive suspension pending investigation of the complaints lodged against him and that he be removed from his position.
Peralta could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Arceo’s lawyers are asking for the preventive suspension of the general claiming there is a strong possibility that he may use his position in order to compromise the integrity of documents and vital witnesses, and use his position to give undue advantage to his wife that would affect the peaceful and orderly conduct of the election in Hinigaran.
Arceo in his complaint-affidavit said his opponent for the position of mayor of Hinigaran is Mitchelle Cordova-Peralta, the wife of the general.
The mayor alleged that the general has used his position to harass and intimidate him for the purpose of ensuring the victory of his wife.
He cited frequent surveillance operations and the CIDG’s convincing Olivia Salazar, the wife of his friend Mario Salazar, to file complaints against him for the murder of her husband.
He alleged that the CIDG forced Olivia Salazar to sign a request for the CIDG and PNP to investigate his involvement in the killing of her husband and the death of her son, Mark Christian Salazar, and his alleged link to illegal drug operations in Hinigaran.
Olivia Salazar informed him in December that she was asked to execute an affidavit and fabricate a story to implicate him, Arceo said.
He said because of incessant pressure employed by CIDG elements Olivia Salazar was forced to sign a letter containing allegations that he was involved in the death of her husband and son.
But Areco said on January 14 Olivia Salazar in a handwritten letter to the CIDG Negros Occidental denied that she implicated him in the killing of her husband and son, and linked him to the illegal drug trade.*