Spouse of one of 5 arrested men complains of arbitrary detention

The common-law wife of one of the five men arrested last February 7 for alleged possession of guns and ammunition in Danglag, Consolacion ha complained of arbitrary detention because no formal charges were filed against them since.

Argen Novo said her spouse, Jaime Sta. Ana, is a painter who works for a construction company. Sta. Ana and his companions were arrested and detained for more than 48 hours but they were not indicted of any charge yet until yesterday, she said.

Policemen of the Cebu City Police Theft and Robbery Section, and the Vice Control Section, in coordination with the Consolaction Police, conducted a manhunt Wednesday night of a robbery suspect but caught the five men instead.

Aside from Sta. Ana, the four others arrested were Rogelio Montebon Paglinawan Sr., 49, his son Rogelio, Jr, 21, and nephews Allan, 24, and Roland, 24. Each of them were found allegedly in possession of revolvers, a toy gun, and drug paraphernalia.

Novo complained that the police team went on a house-to-house search allegedly without warrants. She added that the team did not find any gun in their house but she was shocked later to know that the police said they found her husband with an unlicensed firearm.

Novo further said the policemen took the arrested men from the Palace of Justice to Consolacion, and then to Mandaue City before bringing them back to Mabolo Police station for detention last Friday.

"Wala pa gyud to nila na-file-an og kaso kay kung nakiha na nasulod na unta sila sa BBRC," Novo said as he gave his complaint letter to Sr. Insp. Alexis Relado, the TRS chief.

Inspector Michael Anthony Bastes, the TRS deputy chief, however told The Freeman that they have already filed the charges of illegal possession of firearms against the suspects at the Provincial Prosecutor's Office since Thursday.

The charges were already docketed in the afternoon of the same day but the processing of the indictment was not finished yet until now, said Bastes.

They later learned that they have to present the suspects to a court in Mandaue City where the case would be accepted but because of time constraints in processing the documents, they would have to wait until Monday to finish it, considering also that there are no courts in the weekend, he said.

Bastes added that they received calls from two people who identified some of the suspects as the ones who robbed them but, as of yesterday, not one of them went to the TRS office to file the formal complaints.

Relado for his part, told reporters that the victims of the suspects might have lost interest in pursuing the case or even try to file formal charges because the police did not recover from the suspects any of the alleged stolen items.

The police operation in Consolacion was hatched after the TRS received reports about the presence of the notorious suspect, Renato Hermosilla, who had been linked to high-profile robberies in Cebu City and Metro Cebu.

The police team did not find Hermosilla however in the reported place but caught instead the five allegedly armed suspects, except for one who escaped.

Relado, in an earlier interview, said the neighbors of the suspects were the ones that tipped off the police about the suspicious activities of the five arrested men.

He said the five were frequently seen going home late on a taxi although they were known to be farmers and without permanent jobs.

Further investigations pointed at them as possibly involved in a series of robberies and snatchings inside public utility jeepneys in Metro Cebu. - Edwin Ian Melecio