The affidavit the judge forgot

Prosecutors of the Kuratong Baleleng multiple murders on Friday asked the Supreme Court to sack Judge Teresa Yadao for dishonesty and bias in dropping the case. They said she openly sided with ex-Gen. Panfilo Lacson and 33 coaccused officers. Too, that she held press interviews to say she’d stick to her decision even while a motion for reconsideration was being filed. And that she made it appear that she issued an order in open court on Oct. 17 when she in fact walked out of the hearing.

A week before, the prosecutors also filed a plea for Yadao to inhibit. They said she ignored their new evidence, including affidavits of four police officers, signed in 2001 and attesting to the rubout of 11 KB suspects ostensibly to take bank-robbery loot of $2 million and P25 million.

Yadao, in her decision, took pains to debunk the statements of Insp. Ysmael Yu, Sr. Insp. Abelardo Ramos and SPO-2 Wilmor Medes. But she mentioned only in passing the one by SPO-2 Noel Seno.

Following are excerpts of Seno’s affidavit:

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I, SPO-2 Noel Seno y Pentinio, of legal age, married, and assigned to the PNP Special Task Group, Visayas Area Office, Camp Sergio Ormeña, Cebu City, after being duly sworn in accordance with law, hereby state:

(1) I am a member of the PNP, from 1991 to the present.

(2) On 17 May 1995, I was part of a police operation of the Traffic Management Command-Task Force Limbas.

(3) That night a team member and I were assigned by Capt. Glenn C. Dumlao as advance party at Superville Subd., Parañaque. Other units were meeting at Camp R. Papa, Taguig, about a raid on the hideout of the Kuratong Baleleng gang headed by one Wilson Soronda alias Koreano. SPO-3 Willie Nuas was with our team.

(4) After waiting for two hours at Superville, a police convoy arrived, led by a V-150 of the PNP-SAF and trailed by marked and unmarked cars. It was a combined force of the SAF, NCRC, CIC, TMC, CPDC and PACC.

(5) The SAF with the V-150 headed the raid. We from the TMC provided perimeter security. After the SAF neutralized the hideout, my team member and I went in. I noticed more than five men, handcuffed and blindfolded, lying face down on the floor.

(6) Parked at the garage were two L-300 vans. Sr. Supt. Francisco Zubia and Chief Supt. Romeo Acop stood by with their drivers and bodyguards.

(7) On finishing the operation, we proceeded to TMC headquarters in Camp Crame with the more than five KB captives in the two L-300 vans.

(8) We bade leave to rest in our quarters at Special Operations Unit.

(9) In the early hours of 18 May 1995 I was roused by a radio call from Insp. Abelardo Ramos, who told use to go to the motorpool behind the TMC headquarters.

(10) Thinking it was still part of the operation, my team member and I rushed to the motorpool. We passed by the parking lot, where there were many policemen, some in uniform, some not.

(11) We waited for some time behind the HQ with other policemen, as several officers and generals were still discussing what to do with the KB gangmen.

(12) When Insp. Ramos emerged after a long wait, I asked him, "Sir, what did the bosses say?" He replied that there was a decision to create a scenario. "Sir, many neighbors witnessed us taking the captives," I protested. He said, "I don’t know, it’s their order, it’s their responsibility."

(13) After a briefing, Insp. Ramos, SPO-1 Wilmor Medes, a team member and I hopped into one of the L-300 vans in which were seated four of the KB gangmen we had taken from Superville. We spearheaded the convoy, followed by the other L-300 van, ridden by men of the PACC-Task Force Habagat under Maj. Michael Ray Aquino,, and other KB gangmen.

(14) While traversing Commonwealth Ave., Quezon City near dawn, I noticed that we were in a long convoy of marked and unmarked cars of combined police units. The four KB suspects were blindfolded, with hands bound by packing tape. A TMC team member was at the wheel; our team leader Insp. Ramos sat beside him.

(15) We pulled over at the foot of the flyover going to Novaliches. We jumped out of the van. There, the shootout scenario with supposed members of the KB gang was then executed.

(16) I remember that the sun was beginning to rise, so everybody had to move swiftly. We darted from the L-300 van. A vehicle with supposed members of the Central Police District Command moved in and shot up the van we had ridden.

(17) When it was light moments later, I saw Chief Supt. Panfilo Lacson, wearing decent attire and eyeglasses, inside a Lite-Ace being interviewed by a member of the media. My companions and I then took another vehicle back to Camp Crame.

(18) One day in March 1996 I and other men from the TMC received subpoenas from the Ombudsman in connection with a robbery charge by Mario Enad, alleging that we had stolen stuff from the Superville hideout.

(19) Days later we were ordered by Sr. Supt. Zubia to show up at the office of Atty. Frank Chavez in Makati so fix things. We did.

(20) I know that perjury is against the law. But since the order was the only way we could cover up the truth about the events of May 17-18, 1995, I signed the counter-affidavit in the presence of Sr. Supt. Zubia.

(21) On 26 July 1996 the Ombudsman dismissed the charge against us for lack of evidence. Attached to it was the After-Operation Report dated 31 May 1995, signed by Chief Supt. Jewel Canson, Chief Supts. Acop and Lacson, and Sr. Supt. (22) I freely swear by this narrative to attest to the truth of the events of May 17-18, 1995.

Signed 31 May 2001 in Manila.

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