Batangas mayor faces raps for cop's slay

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna, Philippines – Police have filed murder charges before the Department of Justice (DOJ) against a Batangas town mayor and his two close associates in connection with the ambush-slaying of a police officer in Taal town last month.

Senior Superintendent Edwin Nemenzo, Region 4-A director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), said murder raps were filed last Monday before the Chief State Prosecutor’s Office in Manila against Lemery Mayor Eulalio Alilio.

Also included in the charge sheet were the mayor’s allies Arnulfo de Silva and Socrates Magsumbol, as well as several John Does believed to be members of the New People’s Army.

Alilio and the other respondents were implicated in the killing of Superintendent Rodney Ramirez last July 12. All suspects, including the mayor, are still scot-free.

“We have a strong case against Mayor Alilio along with the other accused based on the testimonies of several witnesses” Nemenzo told The STAR.

He said the motive behind the killing of Ramirez could be work-related or revenge.

He said Alilio was tagged as the alleged brains and financier of the group that orchestrated the slaying of the police official. De Silva, according to Nemenzo, is an alleged drug lord.

Senior Inspector Rizaldy Garcia, head of the CIDG investigating team, said the abandoned blue L-300 van (TKY-349) used by the suspects and recovered by the police in the crime scene was allegedly bought by Alilio from a car sales agent for P120,000 sometime in October 2009 in Palapala, Dasmariñas, Cavite.

Witnesses alleged that De Silva and Magsumbol were among the six gunmen who alighted from the van and opened fire at Ramirez, who was riding his bicycle when he was waylaid in Barangay Butong, Taal town.

Garcia said several witnesses saw the two suspects running toward a sugarcane plantation after the attack.

Police earlier raided De Silva and Magsumbol’s homes where they seized several unlicensed guns, ammunition and explosives. The firearms were brought to the crime laboratory for ballistic examination.