Kuratong witness resurfaces, ready to testify

A witness in the 1995 Kuratong Baleleng murder case has resurfaced to testify that the 11 gangmen were killed in cold blood by policemen on instructions of their superiors.

Mario Enad, 35, a former civilian agent of the defunct Traffic Management Command, said a government prosecutor asked him to leave the Witness Protection Program after the case against former Philippine National Police chief Panfilo Lacson and 25 other police officers was dismissed in 1999.

Enad was presented to reporters by lawyer Arno Sanidad, secretary general of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG).

Sanidad told reporters the Department of Justice has formed a panel to determine if the statements of new witnesses and other evidence could be used to reopen the case.

"Every witness is credible," he said. "(The court’s) decision that there are no other evidence against the accused is contradicted."

On March 29, 1999, Judge Wenceslao Agnir of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court dismissed the case against Lacson and other police officers on the ground that no other evidence could show that a crime had been committed.

In his decision, Agnir said the "recantation of principal witnesses and the principal private complainants" has rendered the criminal information meaningless.

Sanidad said Agnir could be held liable for his action as he did not give importance to Enad’s testimony after the principal witnesses – Senior Police Officers 2 Eduardo de los Reyes and Corazon de la Cruz, and Armando Capili and Jane Gomez – had retracted their statements.

"Enad never recanted," he said. "He was simply bumped off."

Enad said Chief Superintendent Cesar Mancao, former operations officer of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, tried to bribe him while he was under the Witness Protection Program.

Enad said he refused the bribe but that Mancao told him to accept the money so "my life would be prolonged."

Enad said Prosecutor Philip Aguinaldo told him to leave the safety of the Witness Protection Program because the Kuratong Baleleng case was already closed.

"The case is finished and he allowed me to walk out of the program," he said.

Enad said he and his family have been living a dangerous life for the past two years, fearing that Mancao would be able to track them down.

"My family, including my four young children, moved from one place to another in Metro Manila," he said.

Enad said he got in touch with Sanidad after police officers Ismael Yu and Abelardo Ramos surfaced two weeks ago and expressed their desire to testify against Lacson.

"My family and I have been sacrificing for a long time already," he said. "I have nothing to lose if I testify in this case."

Enad said his family would stay for about two months in one place before moving, and that he had worked as a part-time mechanic – a skill he had learned while under the Witness Protection Program.

"I had to use pseudonyms while we were on the run to avoid being detected," he said.

Enad said he was part of the police unit that had staked out a safehouse of Kuratong Baleleng leader William Soronda in Superville Subdivision along Sucat Road in Parañaque City.

On May 18, 1995, police raided the safehouse and seized four duffel bags of money and pieces of jewelry before proceeding to Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City with the gangmen aboard a van, he added.

Enad said he saw police shoot down Soronda and his five men while they were handcuffed inside the van along Commonwealth Avenue.