8 Cavite cops, civilian get life

The Manila Regional Trial Court sentenced eight Cavite policemen and a civilian to life imprisonment yesterday for the 1993 killing of two brothers and the wounding of a third sibling, whom they alleged to be hired gunmen.

RTC Judge Luis Arranz convicted Inspector Francisco Alhambra and seven other policemen of Carmona, Cavite, and civilian Renato Morales, for the killing of brothers Rolando and Gerardo Purificacion, and the wounding of sibling Vicente on July 15, 1993.

The seven other Carmona policemen are SPO3 Leon Sante, SPO2s Virgilio Zamora and Virgilio Manabo, SPO1s Albert Nepomuceno, Rene Ambat and Domingo Desalit, and PO3 Constancio Lagtu.

Rolando died from a gunshot wound in the buttocks, Gerardo from multiple bullet wounds, one of them in the back, while Vicente survived gunshot wounds in the chin, neck and fingers.

Arranz threw out the lawmen’s alibi of self-defense, noting strong evidence refuting this.

The judge also dismissed the testimony of a defense witness that he saw Rolando and Gerardo come out of their nipa huts with guns, saying the witness did not see the victims actually open fire and only heard two gunshots prior to the barrage of gunfire.

Arranz, who took over the case after it was transferred from a Cavite court, said the lawmen "exceeded in the performance of their duty because, through anxiety or in their desire to take no chances, they killed two of the brothers and (wounded) the other."

Vicente served as prosecution witness and identified four of the seven policemen as the ones who shot him as he stepped out of his hut. The Purificacions resided in a three-hectare farm in Maragondon, Cavite.

The policemen had claimed that the three siblings and their father, Narciso, were henchmen of certain prominent people.

In their version of the incident, the Carmona lawmen claimed Rolando was armed with a pistol that yielded two spent shells, while Gerardo had a Carbine that was not fired based on ballistic tests.

The court noted that Rolando had gunpowder burns on the left hand, although he was right-handed, while Gerardo tested negative.

"Given these facts, it is incomprehensible that the victims engaged the accused in a 15-minute gunbattle as the accused claimed the brothers did," Arranz said in his decision.

The judge further asked: "If it is true that the victims did engage the accused in a firefight, why is it that there was no injury nor fatality on the part of the accused?"