The Department of Justice has been asked to prosecute 11 policemen, including the head of the Intelligence Section and Drug Enforcement Unit of the Philippine National Police in the City of San Jose del Monte in Bulacan, for kidnapping and murder charges.
These cops allegedly detained six men and killed two of them in a bogus illegal drugs operation, the National Bureau of Investigation’s Death Investigation Division said in a complaint filed with the DOJ.
The NBI accused Police Major Leo Dela Rosa, chief of the PNP-CSJDM Intelligence Section/City DEU, along with Police Staff Sergeants Benjie Enconado, Jayson Legaspi, Irwin Joy Yuson, and Edmund Catubay Jr.; Police Corporals Jay Marc Leoncio, Herbert Hernandez, Raymond Bayan, and Paul Malgapo; and Patrolman Erwin Sabido and Rusco Madla, of kidnapping and serious illegal detention with murder.
The respondents were also accused of violating Section 38, Article V of Republic Act 10591, or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act; and Section 29, Article II of RA 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
The NBI said they found sufficient basis to hold the policemen liable for the deaths of Erwin Mergal and Jim Joshua Cordero, who were allegedly abducted along with Edmar Asprin, Richard Salgado, Chamberlain Domingo, and Chadwin Santos, last Feb. 13.
The NBI filed the case on behalf of the complainants Jasmin, who is the widow of Mergal, and Rochill, the mother of Cordero.
The bureau’s investigation showed that on the evening of Feb. 13, the policemen forcibly took from Towerville in Barangay Santo Cristo, San Jose del Monte the six victims without legal basis, and brought them to the CSJDM Police Office on board a white van.
The NBI said the victims were reportedly blindfolded and hogtied and placed inside a room in the Intelligence Office of the police station, instead of undergoing booking and documentation procedures.
According to the PNP spot report, the victims Mergal and Cordero were killed at around 12:30 a.m. of Feb. 18 in an alleged fabricated buy-bust operation in a dark and secluded area along Pacolis Road, Barangay Gaya-Gaya, CSJDM, Bulacan.
Reportedly recovered from Mergal were one caliber .38 revolver with one cartridge and four fired cartridge cases. He was also reportedly found in possession of nine pieces of heat-sealed transparent plastic sachet of shabu.
From Cordero, the authorities allegedly recovered one 12-guage improvised shotgun, one fired 12-guage shotgun shell, and 10 pieces of heat-sealed transparent plastic sachet of shabu.