Duterte suspects cops killed Misamis mayor

PNP ordered: Turn over probe to NBI

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte yesterday voiced suspicion that policemen were behind the killing of Mayor David Navarro of Clarin, Misamis Occidental, one of the local executives he had tagged in the illegal drugs trade.

In a chance interview, the President said he wanted the Philippine National Police (PNP) to terminate its probe on the killing and let the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) handle the case.

Navarro was being taken under heavy police escort to a prosecutor’s office in Cebu City last Friday when ambushed by armed men. He was yanked out of the vehicle where he was seated with his two sisters and the Clarin chief of police and shot dead. None of the police escorts fired a shot. Navarro was being readied for inquest for allegedly assaulting a masseur in Cebu City.

“Yan na ang sinasabi ko. PNP, ano’ng ginawa ng PNP? Baka sila ang pumatay, eh, sila yung malapit (That’s what I was saying. What was the PNP doing? Perhaps they killed him, they were the ones near him),” the President told reporters.

“I’d like to order the police to terminate their investigation and hand it over to the NBI – whatever documents and/or proof or evidence that they have in their hands,” he said. “Somebody was out to get him.”

Duterte said allowing the NBI to investigate the ambush would ensure fairness in the probe.

The President also revealed that Navarro supported him during the 2016 polls.

Earlier yesterday, PNP officer-in-charge Lt. Gen. Archie Francisco Gamboa ordered his men to conduct a background check on Navarro.

Gamboa issued the order to Police Regional Office 7 in response to reports linking Navarro to the Alferez robbery group based in Ozamiz City.

“We will direct Region 7 to include that in their SITG (Special Investigation Task Group),” he said at a news briefing in Camp Crame.

Gamboa confirmed Navarro was included in Duterte’s narco list. “He is part really of the national illegal drugs watchlist,” he said.

Gamboa also ordered his men to check if policemen escorting Navarro committed security lapses. “Why were they not able to fire back?”

He declined to comment on a statement issued by Navarro’s family raising doubts on the official version of Navarro’s death. “I do not want to preempt the results of the investigation,” he said.

Brig. Gen. Valeriano de Leon, Central Visayas police director, said they are still in the process of gathering information on the suspects, numbering from five to 10.

“We are still reconstructing the event that happened,” he said in a phone interview.

Based on their initial investigation, the gunmen who killed Navarro could be members of an organized crime gang as they were able to kill the local chief executive despite his being under heavy police escort.

“They were armed with high-powered firearms and their actions were very swift,” De Leon said.

De Leon also defended the policemen who were with Navarro, saying they were caught off guard. “Kahit sino hindi na bubunot ng baril kapag natutukan ka na (Nobody would dare draw his gun if somebody’s already pointing a gun at him),” he said. – Emmanuel Tupas