Raps mulled vs owner of getaway car in Delano murder

The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) may soon file a criminal case against the owner of the vehicle used in the killing of congressional chief of staff Robert Delano after the vehicle was recently located in Daet, Camarines Norte.

“We are already contemplating filing criminal charges against him,” said Superintendent Franklin Moises Mabanag, chief of the QCPD-Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, as he referred to vehicle owner Allan Jordas, who up to now has not provided them any information that would lead investigators to the assailants and the mastermind behind Delano’s ambush.

Mabanag earlier revealed that several witnesses saw the galvanized Asian Utility Vehicle (UHA-715) owned by Jordas in the vicinity of Delano’s house before, during and after the attack.

According to Mabanag, witnesses said it was the vehicle boarded by the three suspects after they walked away from the crime scene.

Mabanag said they could file a criminal case against Jordas for being a “principal (in the crime) through indispensable cooperation” as the owner of the assailants’ getaway vehicle.

Delano, chief of staff of Compostela Valley Rep. Manuel “Wai Kurat” Zamora, was ambushed by three men who approached his vehicle as he was about to leave his house in Barangay Kamuning on Oct. 8.

QCPD investigators led by Mabanag and Homicide Investigation Section chief Superintendent Marcelino Pedrozo Jr. were in Daet from Oct. 23 to 25 to locate the vehicle after its license plates were traced there.

A background investigation earlier done by Camarines Norte provincial director Senior Superintendent Noel Constantino confirmed that the vehicle owned by Jordas was indeed in Daet. Mabanag said Daet police chief Superintendent Ricardo Villanueva has impounded Jordas’ vehicle.

But when asked by investigators, Jordas claimed he never lets anyone borrow the AUV and that the last time he went to Metro Manila using the vehicle was in 2005.

Mabanag has expressed disbelief over this claim, citing accounts by several witnesses who saw the vehicle several times near the crime scene.

Mabanag said Jordas has declined to undergo a lie-detector test, prompting investigators to believe that Jordas “knows something.”