New cop-witnesses took Kuratong alive (1)

Senior Police Officer Ed de los Reyes stunned the nation with his revelation in May 1995. One of two officers tasked to report a shootout in Quezon City, he said he witnessed instead a rubout. He was with buddy SPO-4 Cory de la Cruz on a convoy from Camp Crame to Commonwealth Avenue at dawn of May 18. With the long line of cars were two vans that police had taken the night before in a raid in Superville Subd., Parañaque. At the foot of a bridge de los Reyes suddenly heard automatic gunfire. He saw policemen up front shooting at one of the vans. Corroborating him, de la Cruz said he saw other cops shooting at the van behind them. When the smoke cleared, 11 bank robbers from the Kuratong Baleleng gang lay dead, all shot in the head. De los Reyes and de la Cruz recognized eight of the 11 as suspects whom a posse had taken alive from the Superville raid. Their testimony doused cold water on hot news of a daring police chase.

NBI and Senate inquiries followed. More witnesses came forward. A news photographer swore to have covered the arrest of the same eight men during the raid. A niece of the Kuratong boss said the police raided another house that night in Alabang, nabbing more men and a woman, along with the gang’s loot of $2 million and P25 million. A civilian agent saw all 11 being interrogated at Camp Crame before execution.

The witnesses went into NBI protection, in cramped quarters with their families. The multiple-murder case against high PNP officers took many dramatic twists. Notably, the Ombudsman downgraded the rap against one of the principals, Gen. Panfilo Lacson, to mere accessory. In 1999 he became PNP chief. Four of the witnesses recanted. Some relatives of the fatalities signed affidavits of desistance, although they later admitted to Newsbreak magazine that they had been bribed to do so. The case was dismissed provisionally.

In March 2001, weeks after Lacson and President Joseph Estrada resigned, five policemen came forward with fresh evidence and testimony of the May 1995 massacre. Here is one of them and this is part of his story:

"I, Ysmael S. Yu, of legal age, Filipino, after having been duly sworn to in accordance with law, depose and say that:

"(1) I was commissioned as PNP officer after I graduated from the Philippine Military Academy in 1992.

"(2) On May 17, 1995, I was an Inspector at the Special Action Force anti-terrorist unit with headquarters at Camp Ricardo Papa, Bicutan. On the evening of that day, I received orders to form two teams and report to the office of Chief Supt. Jewel Canson, head of the National Capital Region Command (NCRC) located in the same camp.

"(3) There, my unit and personnel of the NCRC, Presidential Anti-Crime Commission Task Force Habagat, Criminal Investigation Command (CIC), and Traffic Management Command (TMC) were briefed on our mission to neutralize elements of the Kuratong gang.

"(4) Among those at that briefing were Canson, Chief Supt. Romeo Acop who was then-CIC director, Chief Supt. Panfilo M. Lacson who was then chief of TF Habagat, and Sr. Supt. Francisco Zubia who was then TMC director.

"(5) My unit was assigned as the assault team. Target was a house in Superville Subd. Our task was to neutralize persons therein – suspected members of the Kuratong.

(6) I led the team tasked to assault the house and neutralize persons inside. My second team provided perimeter security around the house.

"(7) We accomplished the mission without resistance from the occupants. We apprehended eight male suspects. One of them. I came to learn that evening, was a certain Carlito Alap-ap, a former policeman.

"(8) After we lined them side by side prostrate on the floor inside the house, the investigating unit took over.

"(9) Before leaving the house, I reported separately to Zubia and Canson who were there. I told them I had accomplished my mission and apprehended eight live persons. I then returned to Camp Papa.

"(10) The next day I learned that 11 persons belonging to the Kuratong were killed in an alleged shootout on Commonwealth Avenue. And one of those killed was Carlito Alap-ap whom my team neutralized the night before. I found out later that, aside from Alap-ap, all the others whom were apprehended alive in Superville were among those killed on Commonwealth on the morning of May 18 in an alleged shootout with practically the same police units who were present at Superville.

"(11) For more than five years I have lived with the knowledge that when I turned over the suspects, they were alive, unharmed and neutralized. The next morning they were dead.

"I am executing this affidavit to attest to the truth of all the foregoing, this 24th day of March 2001, before Notary Public Theodore Te."

(Tomorrow: affidavit of officer ordered to execute the suspects)

* * *

Catch Linawin Natin, Mondays at 11 p.m., on IBC-13.

* * *

E-mail: [email protected]