Murder raps filed vs Baliuag cop chief, 10 others

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) filed murder charges yesterday against the police chief of Baliuag, Bulacan and 10 others in the Office of the Ombudsman for the killing of two suspected robbers and four civilians in a videoke bar last month.

Supervising agent Arnel Dalumpines, NBI-Special Task Force officer-in-charge, said they recommended for prosecution Superintendent Jolly Dizon, Baliuag police chief; Inspector Florencio Morales, deputy police chief; SPO3 Primo Ubaldo; and PO1s Vincent Victor Villena, Oliver Ventura, and Emilio Jalova, all assigned to Camp General Alejo Santos in Malolos City.

Also named in the two-inch thick complaint filed in the Ombudsman yesterday morning were SPO2 Renato Cruz, and PO3s Jose Camorongan, Radito Mampo, Marjorie Taruc, and Victor Alberto, all detailed in the Baliuag police.

Reynaldo Esmeralda, NBI deputy director for regional operations, said they would ask the Ombudsman to place the 11 policemen under preventive suspension.

The 11 police officers were held responsible for the alleged rubout of the six men, including 66-year-old Leovino Legaspi, who had been a caretaker of a funeral parlor after retiring as a sheriff of the Bulacan regional trial court in Malolos City.

Witness Jorge Culala told the NBI that SPO2 Cruz coerced him to identify Legaspi as one of those who had robbed him when in truth he had no way of identifying the robbers because they were all wearing ski masks.

The other victims were Daniel Piosca, Renato Balajadia, Florentino Mallari, and Daniel and Nori Simbulan.

The Simbulans were tagged as members of a robbery syndicate.

Baliuag officials, in a manifesto, vouched for the integrity of Legaspi, Mallari, Balajadia and Piosca, who they said had no criminal records.

Dalumpines said they completed their investigation in just 29 days. The NBI took the case last Sept. 10 after the relatives of the four victims sought its help.

Based on the NBI’s investigation, the victims were engaging in a drinking spree inside the Janet videoke bar in Barangay Bagong Nayon, Baliuag town between 9 and 10 p.m. of Sept. 5 when Inspector Morales, together with Ubaldo, Villena, Ventura, and Jalova, brandishing long firearms and handguns, entered the establishment.

Superintendent Dizon, along with Cruz, Camorongan, Mampo, Taruc and Alberto, meanwhile, secured the area.

Morales’ group allegedly pointed their guns at the six men and ordered them to lie face down on the floor.

They reportedly ordered the other people in the bar to leave and then shot the victims.

The Baliuag police earlier claimed that a shootout occurred and that two handguns and a grenade were found in the possession of the Simbulans and Legaspi, respectively.

But the NBI questioned why the policemen had to kill the six men when only three of them were armed, as they claimed. All of the victims tested negative for gunpowder burns in paraffin tests.

As part of its investigation, the NBI summoned the 11 policemen, but they failed to appear and submit counter-affidavits.