Cebu City councilor seeks speedy probe on brod’s slay

MANILA, Philippines - Cebu City Councilor Nestor Archival yesterday called on law enforcers to speed up their investigation into the killing of his lawyer-brother.

Archival also urged Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Alan Purisima to place under preventive suspension Chief Superintendent Romualdo Iglesia of the Highway Patrol Group (HPG)-Region 7 and other law enforcers implicated in the killing of his brother Noel.

Archival told reporters in Manila that Iglesia, Senior Inspectors Eduardo Mara and Joselito Lerion and SPO4 Edwin Galan were the subjects of a search warrant issued by Judge Soliver Peras of the Cebu City regional trial court after probable cause was established against them.

Archival said his brother, prior to his killing, had filed administrative charges against 12 members of the HPG-Region 7, including Iglesia, before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Archival said one of the vehicles – a Toyota Vios – used in his brother ambush-slay yielded copies of several pleadings that his brother filed before the Ombudsman against the HPG men.

He asked why the Toyota Vios, which was suspected to be a “hot car,” was used in the killing when it was supposed to be impounded at the HPG compound.

Archival’s brother, who handled high-profile criminal cases, was killed together with his aide, Edu Miñoza, and driver, Alejandro Jaime, in an ambush on the national highway in Barangay Coro, Dalaguete town in Cebu last month.

Archival’s brother, 52, and his companions were heading back to Cebu City from Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental where they attended a court hearing, when their Ford Escape was fired at.

The assailants rode separate vehicles and flanked the lawyer’s car before firing shots. At least 31 bullet holes from an M-16 Armalite rifle marked all sides of the vehicle. Seven empty shells and two deformed slugs were found 20 meters away from the car.