Robbery suspect's slay: Cops: Nobody willing to testify

CEBU, Philippines - The police are still trying to gather witnesses to the shooting to death of robbery suspect Jeromy Polistico, who was reportedly gunned down by motorcycle-riding men just minutes after being released from the Cebu City Jail in Barangay Kalunasan.

Cebu City Police Office director Patrocinio Comendador said that the Homicide Section is yet to go back to the crime scene and get possible witnesses.

Even if it was said that a few have witnessed the incident, Comendador, said that during the police initial investigation, nobody is willing to testify to it.

The Homicide Section personnel are also yet to verify if the 53-year-old man, who narrated to them and to the media what he saw during the incident, is willing or not to testify before the court.

Dr. Nestor Sator, chief of the PNP-7 Crime Laboratory, who conducted the autopsy on Polistico’s body, said that the latter sustained 19 bullet wounds, including a grazed wound.

Sator said that most of the gun shots hit Polistico’s head and left upper extremities which led to his instantaneous death, although his heart was not hit.

The autopsy also showed that the victim was shot more than two feet away because there was no tattooing found on his body.

Polistico, 31, of Clarin town, Misamis Occidental, was one of the four suspects in the P7.2 million foiled jewelry heist. He just got out of jail after posting P40,000 bail when he was killed while eating at a bakery just a few meter’s away from the facility’s main gate.

Comendador remained to his belief that it was possible that Polistico’s company in the robbery group were behind the attack, noting that of the four arrested, only Polistico was able to post bail.

He further said that one of Polistico’s victims might have also done the crime in order to have revenge.

Comendador however denied that the crime was carried out by vigilantes, saying the assailants’ style in assassinating him was unlike that of the vigilantes’.

Jail warden, Supt. Efren Nemeño, meanwhile said that the monitoring device which was what has left to their surveillance camera outside the gate was also damaged yesterday due to power outage and could only be repaired by electricians.

The camera reportedly was not able to record what has happened on that fateful day as its recording device was still under repair.

Asked if they have plans of installing police and tanod outpost outside the gate to monitor what is happening outside the jail, Nemeño said the matter was actually agreed upon in a meeting with the police and officials of Barangay Guadalupe about three months ago.

However, Nemeño told The FREEMAN that because of some reasons he do not know, the police and barangay officials did not push through with the said plan until today.

The jail warden also said there is only one tower guard for two tower posts and when the incident happened, the said guard was at tower two. Had he been at tower one, he could have possibly witnessed the incident also, Nemeño said.

The FREEMAN tried to get the side of Polistico’s family who claimed his body at the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes on Junquera Street, but they refused to issue any statement.

It was learned that Polistico had a live-in partner and two young children. — Niña G. Sumacot/WAB(THE FREEMAN)