CAV hits CPD for treatment of accused cop

The anti-crime watchdog group, Crusade Against Violence (CAV), lambasted the Central Police District (CPD) leadership for giving special treatment to a policeman and his three ‘assets’ linked to the brutal beheading of three boys last April 16.

Carina Agarao, CAV president, said Police Officer 2 Mario Morales, though confined at the CPD headquarters in Camp Karingal, is allowed to go out of his detention cell to entertain visitors even during the wee hours.

"It was past the regular visiting hours when one of our members saw Morales outside his detention cell talking to his wife," Agarao said. "Let us hope that the law applies to all, even if he is a former CPD member."

Agarao informed Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Teodoro Bay of Branch 86 about the VIP treatment when she and other CAV members attended yesterday’s arraignment of the accused to give moral support to the relatives of the mercilessly beheaded victims.

Morales, a former member of CPD-Batasan Area (Station 6) and his three co-accused, Romeo Aguado, alias Hapon, Rommel Villas and Almario Bernardino pleaded not guilty of the beheading of Kenny Azana, Rolando Popanes Jr. and Avelino Galutan Jr., in Barangay Culiat, Quezon City.

The headless bodies of the victims were found sprawled in a vacant lot in Cresta Verde Subdivision, Novaliches, Quezon City on the night of April 16.

Murder charges were filed based on the accounts of mute witness Jerry Franco, who, through sign language recounted how the victims were beheaded after they were strangled to death on the night of April 16. – Cecille Suerte Felipe