Team leader in Piting raid relieved

The head of the Northern Police District's Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) who was one of the leaders in the April 5 sting operation against the son of Caloocan City Rep. Luis "Baby" Asistio was relieved from his post yesterday.

There was no official statement on the relief of Chief Inspector Rex de la Rosa, but STAR sources said he has been replaced by his deputy, Senior Inspector Bowenn Joey Masauding.

Chief Inspector Rhodel Sermonia, the Bulacan CIDG chief who led the operation that resulted in the wounding of the young Asistio and his live-in partner, however said that De la Rosa had merely gone on leave to prepare the documents related to the case.

The Philippine National Police-CIDG, meanwhile, reiterated yesterday that the young Asistio tried to resist arrest during a sting operation at his house in Dagat-Dagatan in Caloocan last April 5.

CIDG agents said they were merely forced to fire back when the 32-year-old Luis "Piting" Asistio III fired at them with a caliber .45 automatic. The congressman's son and his live-in partner, Rosario Ortega, were wounded in the incident.

"He (Piting) did not know that the people he was dealing with were undercover cops. He realized it only after the buy-bust operation," said the CIDG source, who was a member of the apprehending team.

Police officers added that it was "instinctive" of them to shoot back if they sense their lives are in imminent danger, citing the fact that the Caloocan operation was a big drug deal.

Exactly 214 grams of shabu were seized from Asistio by the policemen led by Sermonia, head of the Bulacan CIDG office. They also seized Asistio's caliber .45 automatic and P3,000 in marked peso bills.

However, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has traced the real owner of the gun in a development that could further complicate the case.

The NBI presented yesterday Noel Soriano as the registered owner of the gun but he invoked his right to remain silent.

NBI Director Federico Opinion raised the possibility that the CIDG policemen could have "planted" the gun on the young Asistio during the sting operation.

"They could get into trouble for this. They could be charged," Opinion said.

However, the NBI could not say whether Soriano is identified with the Asistios or the CIDG personnel.

Police have filed charges of drug trafficking, illegal possession of firearms and direct assault on persons in authority against Asistio before the Department of Justice.

Sermonia and his men reiterated yesterday that the April 5 operation was legitimate and dismissed allegations that it had been personally or politically motivated.

"I have nothing personal against them (Asistio family). It just so happened that an informant led us to a source in Caloocan City. We did not know that the target of the operation would be Congressman Asistio's son," Sermonia told The STAR.

On the other hand, the Asistio family said they were contemplating the filing of counter-charges against the CIDG policemen before the justice department.

Lawyers for the young Asistio, meanwhile, slammed State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon for submitting "Piting" to a court inquest when he had not been placed under arrest.

This developed as the theory of a political conspiracy strengthened with testimonies from the staff of the Manila Central University (MCU) Hospital that the policemen who brought Asistio tried to hide their identities.

Fadullon has issued a resolution finding prima facie evidence of criminal charges against Asistio, who is still recuperating from his gunshot wound at the Chinese General Hospital in Manila.

Asistio's counsel said Fadullon's resolution was "erroneous" as Asistio was never placed under arrest "at any point in time in relation to the case."

The lawyers presented testimonies from MCU Hospital staffers that the CIDG policemen never informed them that Asistio had been placed under arrest when they initially brought him there for emergency treatment.

The lawyers said that the policemen even tried to hide their identity from the hospital staff, strengthening the suspicion that the purported sting operation was politically motivated.

Asistio was brought to the hospital, about five kilometers away from the scene of the shooting, by one of his attackers.

"This attacker turned out to be a policeman named Conrado Cortez who, however, did not tell the hospital staff his real identity, or that he was a policeman who participated in the incident in question," the lawyers said in a statement sent to The STAR.

"He simply introduced himself as a 'concerned individual' and hurriedly left after delivering Asistio to the hospital staff," the lawyer was quoted in the statement as saying.

"He (Cortez) never told doctors and medical attendants at the MCU Hospital that the wounded man he brought in was under arrest. He did not even give instructions for Asistio to be closely guarded or placed under strict surveillance," the lawyer added.