17 Pasay cops post bail, plead ‘not guilty’

Seventeen of the 21 Pasay City policemen charged with the death of a four-year-old hostage victim last May have posted bail and pleaded "not guilty" before a Pasay City judge.

Jo-Mark Belarmino, officer-in-charge of Regional Trial Court Branch 113, said four other policemen have yet to post bail. He added that these are the lawmen who have been dismissed from the service.

A charge of reckless imprudence resulting to homicide against the policemen, led by now-retired Superintendent Eduardo de la Cerna, would be tried at the sala of Branch 113 Judge Caridad Grecia-Cuerto.

This after Orlando Casimiro, deputy ombudsman for the military, disapproved the recommendation of the Pasay City prosecutor to dismiss the case against De la Cerna and his men.

Pasay police chief, Senior Superintendent Oscar Catalan, said he is prepared to testify against his own men.

"But my testimony would be based solely on the documents that were forwarded to me. If they ask me if I was there, I would say I wasn’t," Catalan told reporters.

Catalan was then the chief of the SPD-District Intelligence and Investigation Division (DIID).

The panel of Pasay prosecutors recommended the dismissal of the case because the complaint and evidence submitted failed to identify the persons liable for the death of young Dexter Balala.

But the six-page recommendation approved by Casimiro emphasized that it was "not necessary to determine who actually fired their weapons."

It was further noted that all of the respondents admitted to be present during the hostage-taking situation.

The recommendation also said that even if no shots were fired, Balala would still have "suffered and died" because the policemen were "overtaken by panic and recklessness against a lone hostage taker."

Hostage taker Diomedes Talbo Balala stabbed the boy at least 13 times before policemen fired shots, hitting both.

The SPD and Balala’s parents filed a complaint against the policemen. But the Balalas later filed an affidavit of desistance amid rumors that they agreed to settle the case for P250,000.

Catalan, as the SPD’s representative, became the lone complainant in the case.

The three-hour hostage drama took place in the early hours of May 31 at the Philtranco bus terminal in Malibay, Pasay. – Nikko Dizon