THE policemen, led by Supt. Marvin Marcos who returned to active duty, still face homicide charges for the killing of Albuerra mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. and another inmate in the Leyte sub-provincial jail, a police official said Friday.
“We just want to make it clear… The criminal case exists,” said PNP spokesman Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos. “They will still have to face the homicide case for the killing of Mayor Espinosa and Raul Yap.”
By Marcos’ account, Espinosa and Yap were killed when they resisted police officers serving a search warrant at their cells.
But a Senate investigation concluded that the raid on Espinosa’s cell was a rubout and recommended the filing of murder charges against Marcos and his men. The Justice Department later downgraded the murder charges to homicide, enabling the policemen to post bail.
Marcos and 18 others were recently returned to active duty on the orders of President Rodrigo Duterte, who said he would pardon Marcos if he were convicted.
PNP Chief Ronald dela Rosa said returning Marcos and the 18 other policemen was a good idea because they were being paid their salaries anyway.
The Duterte administration on Friday vowed to cooperate with the planned Senate probe to investigate Marcos’ return to service, despite facing homicide charges over the death of Espinosa.
In a Palace news briefing, Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said that the Palace, through the Philippine National Police (PNP), will respond to any probe questioning Duterte’s order to have Marcos reinstated.
“The government will cooperate. I mean the government through the PNP will cooperate with any investigation. We have always participated in any hearings and we will continue to abide by that,” Abella said.
On Thursday, Senator Panfilo Lacson said that they will be looking into Duterte’s order to have Marcos reinstated and the Justice Department decision to downgrade his case to homicide.
News of Marcos’ reinstatement drew a curse from Lacson, who was once a police chief.