CEBU, Philippines — Two of the four suspects who were arrested in the manhunt operation of the Special Investigation Task Group after the killing of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo and eight others have been placed under the witness protection program of the government.
Police Lt. Col. Gerard Ace Pelare, spokesperson of the Special Investigation Task Group, did not, however, reveal who among the four are now state witnesses.
The four arrested suspects are Joric Labrador, 50, an ex-army, resident of Cagayan De Oro; Joven Aber, 42, ex-army ranger, resident of Barangay Robles, La Castellana, Negros Occidental; Benjie Rodriguez, 45, a native of Mindanao; and Osmundo Rivero, a former soldier from Zamboanga City.
They are facing charges for multiple murder, multiple frustrated murder and illegal possession of firearms and explosives following the deaths of Degamo and eight other individuals in an attack in Degamo’s house in Pamplona town last Saturday.
“When we forwarded the complaints to the DOJ (Department of Justice), when we referred the cases, control of the prosecution is in their hands already so they will assess if they will be qualified to become state witnesses. Our job is just to turn them over,” Pelare explained.
Relief
In a separate development, the entire force of Bayawan City Police Station has been relieved and deployed to Camp Crame.
Pelare said that the relief of all police personnel in Bayawan is an operational and tactical decision “to ensure that the remaining suspects” will be caught.
Pelare added that manhunt continues for the five to seven other perpetrators as he assured that there are enough uniformed personnel to ensure peace and order in Bayawan, where all the four suspects were arrested.
“We are still on manhunt operation in the vicinity of the area (Bayawan). We have maximum police presence in Bayawan City and other neighboring towns. We have the PNP PRO-7, Special Action Force, and our counterparts from the Armed Forces of the Philippines. We assure them they are safe and they will be secured in the entire duration of the manhunt operations,” he said.
Nevertheless, Pelare stressed that if the national government decides to declare a state of emergency in Negros Oriental, the police and the army are ready to implement the policies given to them.
Matched
Also, ballistic examination results showed that the bullets and the assault rifles recovered by the police from the suspects in Barangay Cansumalig, Bayawan City matched with samples from the crime scene.
“This is very important for us. We have SOCO here as part of the SITG to make sure that all pieces of evidence will be examined and we could bolster our case,” said Pelare.
Prints taken from the “getaway vehicles” will also be subjected to testing.
Police already know the owners of such vehicles because they are in coordination with the Land Transportation Office (LTO). However, they are currently investigating if the owners are related to the incident or if the cars were stolen.
Pelare said one of the cars was registered to an owner from Cebu. – JMD (FREEMAN)