The Philippine National Police (PNP) finally opened a formal investigation into last year’s mysterious disappearance of SPO1 Rogelio Brusas, a member of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF).
Chief Superintendent Nestorio Gualberto, head of the PNP’s criminal investigation and detection group (CIDG), mobilized three teams to conduct the probe.
The move came on the heels of the formal filing of a complaint by Brusas’ 68-year-old mother, Magdalena, before the CIDG.
Gualberto also recommended to PNP chief Director General Leandro Mendoza that the Brusas family be given police protection against possible reprisal.
"I sensed their fear for coming out and they must be amply protected," Gualberto said.
The Brusas family has been waging a silent quest for Rogelio who vanished into thin air on March 14 last year after receiving instructors from his superiors to go to the Camelot Hotel in Quezon City for a purported mission.
His car was later found abandoned in hotel premises.
"Hinihingi namin ang katarungan para sa anak ko (We want justice for our son)," a sobbing Mrs. Brusas told Gualberto yesterday.
The matriarch was accompanied by her sister Corazon.
The woman told Gualberto that they suffered in silence for more than a year as her son’s immediate superior, Senior Superintendent Cesar Mancao, warned them against soliciting the media’s help as it would only aggravate their problem.
Tasked to conduct the inquiry were Superintendents Ericson Velasquez, Agripino Javier and Virgilio Pablico.
Prior to his disappearance, the victim allegedly confided to his wife that he had wanted to return to his mother unit, the CIDG, since he could not obey unlawful orders from his superiors.
Brusas allegedly told his wife that he had been ordered to liquidate NBI agent Martin Soriano who whipped up a controversy by blowing the whistle on the alleged links of some NBI agents to big time drug traffickers.
Brusas’ former colleagues refused to talk to The STAR, even as Gualberto has said he will officially summon erstwhile PAOCTF members to shed light on the case once a formal complaint has been filed.
The Brusas family linked POACTF official Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino to Rogelio’s disappearance.–Jaime Laude