Rama wants HPG out of Cebu City

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama wants the PNP Highway Patrol Group (HPG) out of the city.

If he’d have his way, he wants the police unit  dissolved.

“I want to make it public that they should be out.  If they want to defend us, they should not be the ones causing trouble. They should be out and removed,” he said.

Rama’s statement came after the National Bureau of Investigation tagged officers of the HPG in the February killing of lawyer Noel Archival.

He added that he does not want to wait for the time to come that many more Cebuanos will be “hurt” by their abuse of power, “and it’s not fair.”

As this developed, the two law enforcement agencies handling the Archival killing investigation appear to have varying stance on the charges to  be filed against the suspects.

Chief Supt. Danilo Constantino, director of Police Regional Office 7, said there is no enough basis yet to file the charges, while the National Bureau of Investigation  announced that they are already preparing to file the complaint.

Senior Supt. Noel Gillamac, Cebu Provincial Police Office director and head of the task force, admits they have yet to coordinate their move with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)-7.

The PNP’s Task Force Archival asked the HPG to submit all their firearms to the Crime Laboratory for ballistics examination.

Top HPG officials, including its regional director, are implicated in the ambush that killed lawyer Noel Archival, his driver and aide last February 18 in Dalaguete. Named in the search warrant were Senior Supt. Romualdo Iglesia, HPG chief; Senior Insp. Joselito Lerion, Special Operations Team chief; Chief Insp.. Eduardo Mara, deputy regional director and SPO4 Edwin Galan, property custodian.

NBI-7 Director Max Salvador said they are preparing the charges against the four.

BALLISTICS TESTS

Gillamac said they will do a cross-matching of the empty shells and slugs recovered from the crime scene with the firearms issued to HPG personnel.

Chief Supt.  Constantino said confiscating the Toyota Corolla Vios (GSC 675) from the HPG is another step in identifying the culprits.

The task force is awaiting the results of the verification of the certificate of registration with the name Nora Yera of Lapu-Lapu City.  “We don’t want to file a case which can be easily dismissed (by the prosecutor or the court). If we file a case, we want it to have air-tight evidence (to prove the guilt of the accused),” Salvador told reporters.

He said a Hold Departure Order (HDO) against the suspects will be issued once the charges are filed against the suspects.

Only Galan and Mara granted media interviews so far, denying participation in the crime. Lerion sent a text to CDN saying he will answer the charges in due time while Iglesia, the HPG-7 chief, hasn’t  been heard from, so far.

Meanwhile, the HPG lawyers yesterday failed to secure a copy of the court deposition, a recorded out-of-court testimony of witnesses presented by law enforcers in applying for a search warrant.

Executive Judge Soliver Peras of the Regional Trial Court in Cebu City refused to grant the lawyer a copy of the court record which shows the basis of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in applying for the search warrant. The lawyer requested the media not to identify him in news reports for the moment until he will get a copy of the deposition.