Supt. Ponciano Zafra, who is deputy provincial director for investigation of the Nueva Ecija police based in Cabanatuan City, is undergoing chemotherapy for Adenoid cystic carcinoma, a form of cancer.
Each chemotherapy session costs P84,000, but Zafra could not even obtain any loan to finance his medical need because the case against him has not been officially dismissed by the Directorate for Investigation and Detection Management (DIDM) of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
In 2013, the DIDM accused him of allegedly doctoring crime statistics report in Gerona, Tarlac where he was then police chief. The report was required by the then newly imposed Unit Crime Periodic Report System.
Zafra was reassigned to Aurora province pending the investigation. Meanwhile, he defended himself by asserting that he had reported all crimes under his jurisdiction covering a period of six months, including 33 vehicular accidents.
It turned out, however, that the Nueva Ecija provincial police removed the cases of vehicular accidents in Gerona, prompting the DIDM to suspect Zafra had underreported the number of crimes in his area.
Zafra noted that after six months of investigation and hearings, he was exonerated from the administrative case. But he lamented that “technically”, his case has remained active because no order has so far been issued clearing him of the administrative charge.
“It has been more than a year since the resolution clearing me was issued, but up to now no order has been officially issued to clear me. Technically, I still have a case pending against me,” he lamented in his sickbed at the Nueva Ecija Doctors Hospital.
In his almost 17 years in the police service, Zafra is known to have earned more than 120 medals and at least 100 commendations.
“As police chief of Gerona, Tarlac, Zafra almost completely eradicated the illegal drug problem and neutralized all known criminal gangs,” said Gerona councilor Junior Bartolome, brother of former PNP Director General Nicanor Bartolome.
Zafra hogged headlines when, in December 2012, he neutralized the notorious Aquino-Espada robbery- kidnapping group which had abducted and killed a 63-yearold lawyer from Baguio City.
In a firefight, Zafra and his men killed five members of the Aquino-Espada group in Barangay Danzo, Gerona, and recovered the Innova van of the murdered kidnap victim.
