Executed or freed? CIDG probes 4 detainees’ fate

MANILA, Philippines - The police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) is investigating the alleged execution of four detained suspects who reportedly confessed to raping and killing a 13-year-old girl in Marawi City last Friday.

Senior Superintendent Alex Tagum of the CIDG said they have yet to find proof of the killing of Jabbar Macacua, Elias Pimping, Salman Sambitory and Jalil Sani.

The four were accused of raping a Maranaw girl and setting on fire their house while her parents were attending a Muslim prayer congregation in Barangay Basak Malutlut, Marawi City last Aug. 14.

The CIDG conducted investigation after the alleged execution of the four suspects was reported in The STAR.

Tagum said the four suspects were indeed taken into police custody a day after the alleged rape and arson.

He noted, however, that the four were released after the 36-hour period lapsed with no charges filed against them.

Tagum added the alleged sexual assault on the girl was not confirmed in the absence of a medico-legal examination report.

“We are still conducting investigation. We are not closing this investigation but as of now, we can’t find proof that the four suspects were really killed,” Tagum said.

Tagum stressed the four could have gone into hiding for fear of reprisal from the family and relatives of the victim.

Earlier reports claimed the four suspects were found dead behind an abandoned hospital on the outskirts of Marawi City.

The reports added no one from the local police could explain how the suspects, who were held at the Marawi City jail, disappeared from their detention cell and ended up dead with gunshot wounds to the head.

The suspects were reportedly spirited out of the city jail by a group to be taken to Bayang town, the hometown of Vice Gov. Haroun Al-Rasid Lucman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The girl was reported related by blood to Lucman.

The suspects reportedly admitted setting the house on fire to cover up the evidence of their misdeeds.

On the other hand, local officials and village elders claimed the families of the four suspects had volunteered their execution.

Some barangay officials said the four had been killed one after another by angry relatives of the victim after the police set them free last Monday.

Lanao del Sur provincial police director Supt. Agustin Tello was quoted in radio reports as saying that the suspects were released from detention since no case was filed against them.

Sources, including local officials, said the four suspects had been killed before dawn Tuesday.

Sources from the city government said one of the four rapists was a cousin of a certain Otik, a henchman of an incumbent official.

Otik, who was implicated in many heinous offenses, has reportedly been protecting criminal syndicates in Marawi City and nearby towns in Lanao del Sur.

The sources also confirmed the parents of the four suspects supposedly signed waivers to allow the relatives of the victim to take their vengeance on the four but spare others from vendetta attacks.

“We don’t want this thing to get out of hand. The families of the suspects and the victims do not want to get themselves in a rido,” the local official said, referring to a clan war. – John Unson