Cop charged in Dalaig murder case

A Manila prosecutor recommended yesterday the filing of murder charges against Police Officer 1 Basser Ampatuan of the Shariff Kabunsuan provincial police force, who was tagged by two witnesses as the man who shot dead Commission on Elections (Comelec) legal department chief Alioden Dalaig.

The murder charge, a non-bailable offense, is still subject to approval by the chief inquest fiscal of Manila’s prosecutor’s office, according to prosecutor Renato Gonzaga.

Meanwhile, police investigators remain firm in linking Ampatuan to the slaying of Wynne Asdala, who succeeded Dalaig in the Comelec’s legal department.

Dalaig was gunned down outside the Hyatt Hotel casino in Manila last November while Asdala was murdered on March 24 just across the Comelec office in Intramuros, also in Manila.

Chief Inspector Dominador Arevalo Jr., chief of the homicide section of the Manila Police District, said the witness failed to identify Ampatuan in a police line in the homicide office.

“She was visibly trembling when she confronted Ampatuan in person,” Arevalo said.

The witness in the Asdala killing had earlier identified Ampatuan as the gunman through his photo on his personal data sheet (PDS) from the Directorate for Personnel and Records Management at Camp Crame.

Ampatuan vehemently denied any participation in either killing. He said he only went to Manila in October last year to follow up his application for a loan. He also denied going AWOL.

Ampatuan also denied knowing “Irving,” the mystery man seen on footage taken by a close-circuit television camera tailing Dalaig at a casino in Ermita, Manila.

However, when told that they have a photo of him and Irving together, the former said it could just “be a coincidence.”

Ampatuan was a former member of the Moro National Liberation Front who was integrated into the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Sultan Kudarat, according to his PDS. Irving is a dismissed policeman from Sultan Kudarat.

Rosales said the two killings could be work-related since the two victims were handling the governorship row of Shariff Kabunsuan at the time of the slayings.