ZAMBOANGA CITY — The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has called for more witnesses to the killing and wounding of witnesses inside a safehouse here.
The witnesses in a three-year old kidnapping case were placed under the Witness Protection Program of the Department of Justice (WPP-DOJ) last July 5.
The NBI has formally filed double murder and frustrated murder charges against the policeman-suspect identified as PO3 Carmelito Macansantos before the City Prosecutor's Office last Thursday who shot and killed PO1 Tomasito Dauba, the policeman on duty assigned to guard the witnesses.
Also killed was witness Marvin Agullana while another witness Mark Ausley was wounded. Both are witnesses to the Eliseo Hablo kidnapping case in January 2009.
NBI Regional Director Lawyer Manuel A. Almendras said that their office has filed the charges within the mandatory 36-hour requirement before the policeman-suspect could be released in the absence of any charges.
Almendras said the NBI will also need additional evidences to nail up the case.
He said that upon filing of the case, their regional office will also be looking deeper into other matters that could link others to the three-year old kidnapping case of Eliseo Hablo involving a prominent lawyer-businessman, who is now detained at the Zamboanga Reformatory Center (City Jail) while the case is being heard in court.
Hablo, a fishing magnate and owner of two bakeries in this city, was kidnapped by unidentified gunman at Barangay San Roque this city in the evening of January 8, 2009.
There were reports that Hablo was brought to Basilan, but some policemen monitored a house in a housing subdivision, adjacent to the headquarters of the Western Mindanao Command.
In the morning of February 10, 2009 or just about a month after the kidnapping, lawmen raided the house and arrested seven suspects including a woman, a lawyer and a policeman.
They found Hablo handcuffed to a bed in the ground floor of the three story building said to be owned by the lawyer.
"We are trying to look deeper into that matter (links in the Hablo kidnapping case) and as of now, we don't have concrete evidence linking Macansantos to the Hablo kidnapping case," the NBI Regional Director said.
The initial investigation was done by the police three years ago and it is only now that the NBI entered the picture.
Mayor Celso Lobregat has requested and ordered a thorough investigation on the shooting rampage that could affect the credibility of policemen tasked to protect civilians particularly witnesses to crimes.
Lobregat said he is not comfortable with the initial findings of the police that personal grudges between Macansantos and slain Dauba led to the bloody incident.
Before he was shot, Agullana has already testified in court and his testimonies will already suffice in pursuing the Hablo case in court, the NBI official said.
The witnesses in last week's shooting rampage include PO2 Ricardo Benjemil, Hadisin Jeynudsdin and Jeffrey Ortega, who positively identified Macansantos as the one who started the shooting.
The NBI regional director also disclosed that separate administrative charges were also filed with the National Police Commission (NAPOLCOM) for the summary dismissal proceedings against Macansantos.
City Police director Police Superintendent Edwin de Ocampo has inhibited himself from the investigation of the case as the suspect is under his command. (PNA)
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