Fiscal drops charge vs “NPA secretary”

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines – The Office of the City Prosecutor in Tanjay City, Negros Oriental has dismissed, for lack of probable cause, a complaint of illegal possession of an explosive against an alleged front secretary of the New People’s Army.

The complaint was lodged by Chief Inspector George Badon, Tanjay City Police chief, against Jose Rene Bustamante, a native of Catbalogan City in Samar and with roots in Bacolod City of Negros Occidental.

Bustamante, allegedly the secretary of the NPA’s South East Front of the Komiteng Rehiyon Negros, was arrested during a joint police-military checkpoint in Tanjay City last June 6 for illegal possession of a grenade in violation of Republic Act 9516.

Bustamante, however, countered that the confiscated grenade did not belong to him and was “planted” by the authorities.

In a three-page resolution penned by Maria Luisa Ong, investigating prosecutor of the Tanjay City Prosecutor’s Office, she noted that “the arresting officers failed to substantiate the allegations” that the grenade purportedly recovered from Bustamante was actually his.

The prosecutor said in her findings and recommendation that the complaint only provided affidavits of the allegations against Bustamante’s supposed possession of the explosive but did not make any attachments of documents, such as for proper documentation, booking and inventory of items taken allegedly from the respondent.

In her resolution, dated August 20 but received only last September 12, Ong also found merit on how the two bags were taken by the authorities, and that the arresting officers themselves could not substantiate how it was taken. “Hence, it is not safe to assume that said bags did come from respondent,” she added.

In a series of events following Bustamante’s arrest, the Tanjay Police narrated in the complaint that they had information of the Order of Arrest against a certain John Doe Pediong and Julito Alaban for the crime of murder, issued by the Regional Trial Court Branch 41 in Dumaguete City.

Bustamante, allegedly the man referred to as Pediong, was arrested at a checkpoint in Tanjay City on board a Ceres bus at around 8 p.m. of June 6.

After he was informed of his rights, the operatives took possession of Bustamante’s bag and a blue-colored hand bag and later brought him to the police station for booking and documentation. The police claimed that they found a fragmentation grenade inside the blue hand bag of Bustamante, alias Pediong.

While the illegal possession of an explosive was dismissed, Bustamante is currently still behind bars in relation to a murder case filed against “Pediong” and Alaban.

Both suspects were charged for the murder of Narciso Bantoto Jr. in an ambush allegedly perpetrated by suspected NPA members last January 17 in Barangay Tayak ofiaton town in southern Negros Oriental.

Bantoto Jr. was killed in the presence of his wife, Crisabel, their children and another relative. However, Bustamante denied involvement in the killing, adding that he was not the man referred to as Pediong. (FREEMAN)