Get to bottom of Campos slaying, GMA orders cops

Get to the bottom of things.

This was the President’s order yesterday to Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina Jr. regarding last Thursday’s murder of controverisal police Superintendent John Campos.

Mrs. Arroyo wanted Lina to press investigators of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to "get to the bottom" of the Campos slay case amid reports the incident may be part of a destabilization attempt against the government.

The PNP is directly under Lina.

The President is expected to demand status reports on the Campos case investigation in this morning’s joint-command conference of the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) at Malacañang.

The President summoned to the meeting new AFP chief Gen. Dionisio Santiago and the major AFP service commanders, PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. and the PNP regional directors, as well as Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, National Security Adviser Roilo Golez, Lina, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Eduardo Ermita and Executive Secretary and concurrent Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security chief Alberto Romulo.

Campos was gunned down at a 24-hour food shop in Barangay Don Bosco in Parañaque City before dawn Thursday by a lone M-16-wielding gunman. Campos suffered two gunshot wounds in the back and one in the head. A food shop waitress, Emily Dumlao, 29, died while undergoing treatment for bullet wounds in the abdomen.

Though Malacañang has not yet received official verified information on any possible destabilization motives, Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said the President was disturbed by the brutality of Campos’ assassination, which took place during her four-day state visit to Japan.

"The President is, in fact, very concerned because a colonel of the police was killed in cold blood. So she has ordered (the case investigators) to get to the bottom of this," Tiglao said.

At the time he was killed, Campos was enrolled at the PNP Academy, Tiglao said, "because (Campos) was on floating status," after the expose made by former deep penetration anti-narcotics agent Mary "Rosebud" Ong, who was Campos’ live-in lover for five years.

Campos was Ong’s handler when she was an undercover agent for the PNP against the Hong Kong Triad drug ring. Ong accused Campos of engaging in the illegal drug trade upon the orders of former PNP chief and now Sen. Panfilo Lacson, with whom Campos was associated.

Tiglao refused to say if the government would withdraw the police security detail assigned to Ong, who was implicated as a suspect in Campos’ murder.

"(Ong) is under witness protection because of a different case. If there are allegations against her, file the charges," Tiglao said. "This is a police matter at this point, although the President emphasized this is a very important case."

Powder burns

Campos tested positive for powder burns when he was given a paraffin test, reports reaching Lina’s office said. Investigators said the powder burns show that Campos may have fired a gun prior to his death.

In a report to Lina over his weekly "Sagot Ko Yan" radio program on dzMM, Southern Police District (SPD) director Chief Superintendent Jose Gutierrez Jr. said while Campos was unarmed during the attack, paraffin test results showed he was positive for powder burns.

"He could have fired a gun several hours before his death," Gutierrez told Lina.

Crime scene investigators also collected seven Armalite bullet shells. The shells and slugs recovered from the crime scene will be subjected to ballistic tests, Gutierrez added.

Cartographers working on the case are having difficulty coming up with composite sketches of the assassin, as eyewitnesses to the murder were unable to describe the suspect. The witnesses said they did not see the suspect very well because it was hazy.

Initial forensic test results are under study by investigators and they are still gathering additional evidence, Gutierrez said.

The Parañaque police force is spearheading the investigation and is under strict orders not to give any premature statements that could muddle the probe, Gutierrez said.

Fear, outrage

A ranking police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Campos’ assassination might trigger a spate of high-profile killings if the case is not solved immediately.

The police official warned that a criminal group he refused to name has vowed to take advantage of Campos’ death to hit high-profile private and government targets.

Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Hinirang Class of 1987, to which Campus belonged, condemned "the dastardly act committed on our mistah."

PMA Class ‘87 president Superintendent Ranier Espina also said the entire class believes that Campos is "not guilty of the voluminous charges brought out in publicly by certain quarters, as he had proven himself to be a very professional, dedicated and highly decorated officer who was willing to put his life on the line in the interest of the public, whom he has sworn to protect."

The Hinirang class refused to give any statements regarding the ongoing investigation into Campos’ death but assured investigators of their help to ensure the speedy resolution of the case "so that justice may be served and the perpetrators of this heinous crime, all the way to its mastermind, be brought to court to face trial."

Espina also appealed to all those who witnessed Campos’ murder to come forward "in the name of justice and righteousness."

Campos’ immediate superior at the defunct PNP Narcortics Group and Southern Tagalog Regional Police Office, cChief Superintendent Reynaldo Acop, said Ong’s statements immediately after Campos’ death was highly suspect.

Acop, speaking at Campos’ wake at Camp Crame, said "we are the ones who are dying one by one and yet we are the ones at fault." He was responding to Ong’s accusations that Campos’ murder may was perpetrated by Lacson’s group, with which Acop — like Campos — was closely associated.

He also ruled out the possible involvement of the communist hit squad Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB) in the killing, saying the M-16 used in the murder was loaded with special ammunition.

Acop said that, as far as he knows, the Hong Kong Triad "has no hit men here."

Of the destabilization plot angle, Acop said, "we and our families are the ones getting destabilized. We are the ones under surveillance, five (wiretaps) are on my phone. My driver has just been relieved and sent to Bicol simply because he was assigned to PAOCTF (the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force led by Lascon). I’m just thankful to Gen. Ebdane for giving me two additional policemen as my security detail." — Marichu Villanueva, Jaime Laude, Perseus Echeminada