CEBU - The police have already released a man earlier tagged as suspect in the killing of Assistant City Prosecutor Patrick Osorio after a witness refused to tag him as the gunman.
Cebu City Police Office Director Patrocinio Comendador yesterday confirmed having investigated Tau Gamma Phi member Ritcham Alda in connection with the murder of Osorio, but clarified that he was not considered a suspect yet.
According to Comendador, Alda voluntarily turned himself in to clear his name after learning that he was being suspected in the murder of Osorio on January 6 in the afternoon at Maria Gochan Street in barangay Mambaling.
Comendador said that aside from Alda there were also other people invited for questioning.
The police chief said that after investigation they found no legal basis to charge Alda in the murder of Osorio.
This even if a text message was allegedly found in the message folder of his cellular phone that he bragged to somebody about having killed somebody in barangay Mambaling.
A motorcycle was also recovered from him which was believed to be the get away vehicle because the color was recently changed from red to black.
Comendador said that these circumstances could not strongly link Alda yet to the murder.
The witness’ refusal to point Alda as the triggerman however could have prompted the police to release him.
Elenito Cole, a trisikad driver who witnessed the shooting, earlier claimed he was forced by the police to sign an affidavit that points Alda as the triggerman.
Cole said that in the affidavit that the homicide police allegedly prepared, it was mentioned that he saw Alda at the vicinity of the crime scene an hour before Osorio was ambushed.
According to Cole, he was forced to sign the affidavit because he was not allowed to leave the police office unless he signed it.
Cole said he was picked-up Saturday afternoon and was allegedly not allowed to leave even if he was already starving prompting him to sign the affidavit at dawn last Sunday.
According to Cole, what he saw was the red motorcycle with two persons on board fleeing from the ambush scene. Cole said he did not see the face of the gunman and the driver of the motorcycle because they were wearing helmets.
The witness said he and a fellow trisikad driver, a certain “Tata,” only saw Osorio shouting for help after he was shot. Osorio died a day after at the hospital.
“We cannot afford to execute somebody who is not involved in the crime,” the CCPO chief said.
He said that they would not point somebody as a fall guy just to have the case considered close or solved.
Comendador also said that the witness may have misinterpreted the investigating team, who he alleged had forced him to sign the affidavit last Sunday.
With many investigating teams looking for him and conducting intensive questioning, the witness was already scared, said Comendador.
CONDEMNATION
Meanwhile, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines yesterday passed its first resolution for the year condemning the brutal murder of Osorio.
The joint resolution signed by the officials of the IBP Cebu City and Cebu Province chapters, the lawyers’ organizations said that the ambush of Osorio shows the deteriorating peace and order situation of the city.
They likewise urged the National Bureau of Investigation and the Cebu City Police Office to solve the crime fast and bring the perpetrators to justice. – /NLQ (THE FREEMAN)