Survivor asks military’s help in fugitive search

Rameses Villagonzalo (right), counsel of ambush survivor Paolo Cortes, and Democrito Barcenas (left), one of the lawyers of the Archival family at Friday’s press conference at the NBI-7 regional office.
(CDN Photo/Junjie Mendoza)

The lone survivor in the ambush-murder of prominent lawyer Noel Archival and his two companions asked the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to assist the law enforcement agencies tasked to arrest the three police officers implicated in the crime.

Lawyer Rameses Victorius Villagonzalo, the counsel of Paolo Cortes, formalized the request in  a letter to AFP vice chief-of-staff Lt. Gen. John Bonafos and Brig. Gen. Arnold Quiapo, chief of the AFP Intelligence Service (ISAFP) which was sent Thursday.

Bonafos was the commanding general of the Central Command at the time the crime was committed.

“The undersigned therefore seeks assistance in the manhunt of these fugitives by way of intelligence gathering and/or coordination for operation with the Criminal Investigation Detection Group (CIDG), Camp Crame, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) national headquarters and NBI-7 of Cebu City,” the letter read.

Villagonzalo said the arrest warrant dated Dec. 11 was returned to the court “unserved.”

He said Senior Supt. Romualdo Iglesia, Senior Insp. Joselito Lerion, and PO1 Alex Bacani—all assigned to the PNP Highway Patrol Group (HPG) were nowhere to be found at the  Personnel Holding and Accounting Section [PHAS] in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

Villagonzalo’s letter was furnished to President Benigno Aquino III, Judge Maximo Perez of the Regional Trial Court branch 26 in Argao town and other law enforcement agencies.

Non-bailable

Iglesia, Lerion, and Bacani are supposed to be within the premises of the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame where they were placed under restricted custody since April.

But when the NBI served the arrest warrants last week, the three policemen were not there.

The three HPG policemen are facing charges of multiple and frustrated murder in relation to the ambush of Archival and his companions. Multiple murder is non-bailable.

Archival, his aides Candido Miñoza, Alejandro Jaime, and Paolo Cortes, were headed to Cebu City after attending a court hearing in Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental when the ambush occurred last Feb. 18. Only Cortes survived the shooting.

NBI-7 agents Rennan Augustus Oliva and Ermie Mosanto conducted an investigation upon the request of the Archival family.

Although no one saw the faces of the assailants, pieces of documentary evidence secured by the NBI led them to the HPG-7.

Criminal charges were eventually filed in court against Iglesia, Lerion, and Bacani.

Related Stories:

3 police suspects for Archival slay still out of sight; Family, NBI appeal to PNP chief

3 HPG cops charged for Archival murder