COPS DENY HAND IN MURDER

A locksmith uses a piece of wire to open the locked Toyota Vios sedan parked at the Highway Patrol Group (HPG) impounding area in Sudlon, Cebu City. The NBI says the car was used by the killers of lawyer Noel Archival. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)

NBI  to  subpoena four PNP suspects in Archival ambush

A day after the Archival murder case was laid at their doorstep, four members of the Highway Patrol Group in Central Visayas (HPG-7) issued vehement denials of any part in the  lawyer’s death.

“Bisag ika 1,000 times pa ko magpa-lie detector test ug ballistic examination sa akong armas, wala ko’y apil sa ilang mga gipasangail  (Even if I take a lie-detector test 1,000 times and submit my guns to a ballistics examination 1,000 times, I’m innocent of the accusation),” said Senior Inspector Eduardo Mara, deputy chief of the unit,  in an interview.

He, his boss Supt. Romualdo Iglesia, Senior Insp. Joselito Lerion, and SPO4 Edwin Galan were linked by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to the Feb. 18 ambush-slay of lawyer Nestor Archival.

The four HPG officers are still at liberty to move around as no arrest warrant has been issued against them.

Their next step would be to find a lawyer to defend them once criminal charges are filed.

The NBI 7, which promised to observe due process,  will be sending subpoenas to the four policemen to answer questions about their whereabouts and what they know of the ambush-slay of lawyer Noel Archival and his two companions last Feb. 18 in Dalaguete town, south Cebu.

“They may want to come here to the office,” said NBI-7 Regional Director Max Salvador who said Archival had filed complaints against the HPG officials for alleged extortion after one of his clients, whose  SUV was impounded, tried to get the vehicle released.

A red Toyota Vios sedan, believed to have been used by Archival’s killers, was found parked in the HPG-7 impounding area in Sudlon, Cebu City.

NBI 7 agents served a search warrant  the other day and took custody of the sedan, but are still looking for a gray Mitsubishi Strada doublecab, which was no longer in the police compound when they showed up.

The search warrant issued by Executive Judge Soliver Peras of the Regional Trial Court, said “there is probable and justifiable cause” that murder had been committed by the four HPG personnel.

No details were mentioned in the warrant, but CDN learned from NBI sources that the red sedan was traced through its license plate, which was recorded by a security camera at the Dalaguete Municipal Hall when vehicles of Archival and his assailants passed through.

MISSING BOSS

Senior Inspectors Mara and Lerion reported for work yesterday at the HPG-7 headquarters in Camp Sotero Cabahug in Cebu City.

Their boss, Supt. Iglesia , was not around. He hasn’t been in his office for the past week, said a police spokesman who was left to face media inquiries.

“The regional director is attending to something related to his work. I just don’t know what it is but he’s just in Region 7,” said Senior Insp. Oliver Plania, HPG 7 information officer.
He said all four implicated HPG personnel sent him a text message saying they will answer the accusations in due time.

“For the moment, I’ll be the one answering your questions. But I think the earlier they’ll be able to answer the accusations, the better,” Plania said.
He couldn’t explain the status of the red Toyota Vios with  plate number GSV-675.

“I cannot say this moment if that car was carnapped,” he said.

“That is why we need to review the background of this vehicle to determine if it was impounded or not,” he added.

“It doesn’t mean that a vehicle is impounded when it is inside an impounding area,” he said.

Senior Insp. Lerion, special operations team chief, declined to comment on the case.

“Sir, pasensya na gyud. Motubag ra ko ana pohon. Salamat sa inyo pagsabot. (Sir, please bear with me. I will answer the allegations soon. Thank you for understanding me),” Lerion said in a text message sent to CDN.

A guard at the HPG-7 impounding area in barangay Sudlon, Cebu City told CDN  Lerion reported for work yesterday but reporters were not allowed inside.

When the search warrant was served on Thursday, the three officers were nowhere in the area.

The lowest ranking of the four, SPO4 Galan, who is due to retire next month, was left to receive the warrant.  He was trembling when he signed it, saying he was shocked to learn he was a crime suspect.

Senior Inspector, Mara, who said that “1,000 lie detector tests” would still show his innocence,  said he had no idea about the red Vios sedan that was seized by the NBI.

He said a separate unit, the Special Operating Team (SOT) under Senior Inspector Lerion controls the impounding area in Sudlon.

“Bisag ika 1,000 times pa ko magpa lie detector tests ug bisag ika 1,000 times pako magpa ballistic examination sa akong armas wala ko’y kalibutan , wala ko’y apil sa ilang mga gipasangil,” Mara said.

Plania said the HPG-7 is used to having people file cases against them because of the nature of their work.

Their work continues as usual. “Manakop gihapon ang mga taga HPG-7,” Plania explained.

Will they appear before the NBI 7 for investigation?

Plania said it would be better if the policemen are called to give their side in the case.

Found inside the red sedan were a photocopy of the vehicles’ Certificate of Registration and official receipt under the name of Ruel Rivera; a notebook, an umbrella, a golf club, a pair of slippers, an extension wire, and a PNP commemorative license plate.

What caught the attention of the NBI-7 was a photocopy of a “Motion For Extension” from the Noel D. Archival and Associates law office filed with the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office on Dec. 16, 2013.

Lerion, one of the suspects in the ambush of Archival, was furnished  a copy of the pleading.  It was found in a compartment in front of the driver’s seat of the red Vios sedan.

Last December 2013, Noel Archival filed administrative and criminal complaints against Lerion, Supt. Iglesia, Senior Insp. Mara, and 11 other police officers before the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for the Military and Other Law Enforcement Offices (Moleo) for “dishonesty, grave misconduct and falsification of public document” for allegedly trying to mislead a court in Cebu City regarding the license plate of a vehicle owned by his client Maria Paz Yu.

Video footage taken from two closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs) installed at the Dalaguete Municipal Hall and a security logbook helped the NBI-7 in identifying the suspects.