NPD urged to secure kin of crime victims

Alarmed by the series of attacks on the relatives and witnesses of victims of high-profile crimes in northern Metro Manila, the former chief of the Northern Police District has urged the district’s new leadership not to let their guard down.

Chief Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil said the security of the victims’ relatives, especially the witnesses, should be maintained and the suspects must be pursued without letup.

"So that they (suspects) would always be on the run and not the ones harassing the victims’ relatives and the witnesses," he said.

Relatives of the victims of high-profile crimes in Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela — collectively known as the Camanava area — have complained to Bataoil that they have no police protection since he left the NPD last month.

Bataoil is now the commander of the police force in the Ilocos region. Senior Superintendent Rufino Druja is the NPD officer-in-charge.

Despite the arrest of some of the principal suspects in at least four celebrated killings in the Camanava area and the filing of charges against them in court, the families of the victims remain in constant danger.

On Nov. 12, the younger brother of murdered photojournalist Prudencio Melendres, Ernesto Melendres, was shot dead in front of his house in Malabon City allegedly by the same suspects who gunned down the newsman on July 31.

During the attack, three boys including Prudencio Melendres’ 12-year-old son were wounded.

The fatalities were cousins of Alberto Orsolino, a tabloid reporter who was killed on May 16 in Caloocan City a few minutes after he left his house in Malabon City to report for work.

Orsolino’s family fled to the province last month after receiving threats from the suspects.

In Valenzuela City, residents in Barangay Bignay — particularly the witnesses in the murders of six factory workers last Oct. 1 in Caloocan City — are also living in fear after the prime suspect, their own village chief, was released by the court.

Graciano Victoriano, with at least six more suspects including his tanods, is now walking around allegedly with a gun.

In another case, Charles Galarce, the star witness on RPN-9 cameraman Ralph Ruñez’s killing in Caloocan City is also being hunted by Ruñez’s killers.

His father, Celerino Galarce, a tricycle driver, was shot dead in Caloocan City in an attempt to intimidate the younger Galarce from testifying.

On Nov. 10, a day before Celerino’s funeral, unidentified men threw three grenades at his wake killing two mourners and wounded 21 others. The suspects are still at large.

The principal suspects on the Aug. 14 assassination try on tabloid reporter Roger Panizal also remain at large.