PNP to hold parallel probe into carjack suspect's death

MANILA, Philippines – The Internal Affairs Service (IAS) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) will conduct a parallel investigation into the death of alleged carjack leader Ivan Padilla during a Makati City shootout with 15 National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) policemen last Aug. 2.

Newly installed NCRPO chief Director Leocadio Santiago said the IAS probe is separate from that being conducted by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).

“The IAS will be determining the regularity of the police operations during the shootout with Padilla and also on some issues being discussed in the media,” said Santiago, apparently referring to claims by Padilla’s relatives that he was “summarily executed.”

The two teams from the NCRPO’s Regional Police Intelligence and Operations Unit (RPIOU) were ordered by Santiago to be “confined to their respective offices” and banned from conducting operations “without proper guidance from me” for the duration of the two investigations.

Santiago also banned the NCRPO operatives from granting interviews to the media because “once you are under investigation, anything you say in the media would be taken as evidence.”

According to Santiago, the 15 NCRPO policemen can only return to work once the IAS and CHR clear them in Padilla’s case.

Santiago directed the NCRPO operatives to present themselves before CHR investigators once properly summoned “to clear the issue once and for all.”

He said all evidence, including the statement of carjack suspect Mark Inducil, should be forwarded to IAS and CHR investigators so they could have a clear picture of who started the shootout.

Inducil was with Padilla during a five-minute gunbattle in Makati City Monday. He remained unscathed while Padilla sustained a gunshot wound in the head. Padilla was declared dead on arrival due to asphyxia by attending physicians at the Ospital ng Makati.

Padilla’s mother sought the help of the CHR amid reports that NCRPO operatives summarily executed him.

Aside from Inducil, NCRPO policemen also arrested Dale Alimagno, 22, and Glenn del Castillo, 31, during an operation in Quezon City Thursday last week.

Recovered from Alimagno and Del Castillo was the Toyota Camry of former foreign affairs secretary Roberto Romulo.

Padilla and a companion, a certain Christopher, escaped in another Toyota Camry, which was found abandoned the following day at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City.

Padilla’s getaway vehicle, used by the vice president of Toshiba Philippines, was stolen at gunpoint from its driver in Makati City last July 3.

Alimagno and Del Castillo lead police to their safehouse in Parañaque City, where the Volvo of the actor Derek Ramsey’s father was recovered.