Garbo defends Sator on autopsy report

CEBU, Philippines - Police Regional Office-7 director Marcelo Garbo yesterday came to the defense of PNP medico legal officer Nestor Sator whose findings on the cause of death of a suspected shoplifter differed with that of the National Bureau of Investigation.

Garbo said this is not the first time that the PNP and NBI medico legal officers have differed in their findings. But he believes that Sator has his own “justifiable reasons” in coming up with his findings.

“There are cases before na ang findings ng PNP at ng NBI don’t match. It happened a lot of times. Kung baga parang sa investigation, hindi rin pare-pareha,” Garbo said in an interview with reporters yesterday.

Garbo said that the credibility of the autopsy report depends on who sees it. The family of suspected shoplifter Mario Alfie Ducayag who died while being interrogated by the security personnel of an uptown department store following his arrest for alleged shoplifting threatens to file a complaint against Sator for his “erroneous” findings.

Sator however maintained that there was nothing wrong in his finding. Sator’s finding was the victim died of “asphyxia due to bleeding pulmonary tuberculosis.”

But Dr. Rene Cam of the NBI said the victim died due to traumatic nape injury.

The family of Ducayag sought the assistance of the NBI believing that there was foul play in his death contrary to Sator’s finding.

NBI agent Bernard dela Cruz said he already have the complete recordings of the incident taken from the CCTV camera of the department store.

Dela Cruz said he started viewing the video but refused to divulge specific details because of his ongoing investigation. He said there will be seven witnesses who will be asked to execute affidavit today.

Dela Cruz said that based on the video, he will make a chronological sequence of the incident.

Once they have enough bases, dela Cruz said they will be calling next week the security guards involved. NBI-7 director Antonio Pagatpat said they already have suspects in the death of Ducayag but refused to elaborate.

Ducayag was arrested by the house detectives of the department store for allegedly stealing a pair of sandals.

The victim was taken to the security office where he was reportedly subjected to interrogation. The department store claimed that the victim suddenly collapsed while being interrogated. He was rushed to the hospital by ERUF personnel but was declared dead on arrival. —/FPL (FREEMAN)