Cops’ row muddles probe on ambush

A conflict among police officers threatens to muddle the investigation into the July 31 ambush of a Bayan Muna leader and his family in Kalinga two months ago.

PO3 Jessie Caranto, tagged as one of the ambushers, surfaced at Camp Crame in Quezon City the other day and denied having any hand in the attack on Dr. Constantino Claver, Bayan Muna Kalinga chapter president, his wife Alice, also a leader of the militant party-list group, and their seven-year-old daughter in the early morning of July 31 in Kalinga.

Mrs. Claver was killed in the ambush, while father and daughter survived, the former sustaining gunshot wounds and the latter merely grazed by a bullet.

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has filed murder and frustrated murder charges against Caranto.

But Caranto accused CIDG investigators of linking him to the ambush due to a personal grudge.

Director Jesus Verzosa, CIDG chief, however, belied this, saying it is not the CIDG’s way to implicate a person in a crime.

He dared Caranto to answer the charges against him in court.

"We have witnesses to support the charges against Caranto, who has been linked to three other killings," Verzosa told The STAR.

"The decision to file charges against Caranto was based on the information collated by members of Task Force Claver," he added.

Caranto and his superior, Superintendent Pedro Ramos, former Kalinga police director, even turned the tables on Chief Inspector Rolando Osias, head of the task force.

They accused Osias of protecting illegal activities such as kidnapping for ransom and gun-for-hire.

In a letter to PNP chief Director General Oscar Calderon, Ramos said Caranto, who had served as his driver for several years, was with him and other police officers having breakfast at his quarters at the Kalinga police station at about 6:30 a.m. of July 31.

"We got to the crime scene about 30 minutes later. Nadala na sa hospital sina Dr. Claver at asawa niya (Dr. Claver and his wife had already been brought to the hospital)," Ramos told The STAR in an interview.

"I would like to inform you (Calderon) the personal grudge of Chief Inspector Osias, chief of CIDG-Kalinga, against me and my staff," Ramos said in his letter to the PNP chief.

He claimed that Osias could have had a grudge against him and his men after they busted lawless groups involved in kidnappings for ransom, holdups and gun-for-hire, among other criminal activities, allegedly protected by Osias.

Ramos also alleged a "political motive" in the filing of charges against Caranto, claiming that former Kalinga governor Macario Dugiang helped Osias’ task force and CIDG investigators get "false witnesses against us" because they had arrested Dugiang’s men for alleged rampant thefts. Dugiang could not be reached for comment.

But Osias belied Ramos’ allegations, saying the task force only tagged Caranto in the ambush. "Sila ang nag-implicate sa sarili nila (They are the ones implicating themselves)," he said, referring to Ramos.

Osias denied that he has any grudge against Ramos, saying, "Trabaho lang (We are just doing our job). I have nothing personal against (him)."

For his part, Senior Superintendent Eduardo Bayangos, CIDG-Cordillera chief, said the task force was a composite group of different agencies. "We cannot just decide on our own every time the task force makes a decision. We are just a part of the task force," he said.

Meanwhile, Reynaldo Cortes, chairman of the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance, said he is sure that more witnesses in the Clavers’ ambush would surface.

A CIDG-Cordillera agent, who requested anonymity, however, said witnesses still fear for their lives because they continue to be harassed.

"In fact, on Tuesday night, one witness reported being visited by unidentified men," he said.