CRIMINAL charges were filed yesterday by the National Bureau of Investigation against four operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and 14 policemen involved in a shootout last February that left two cops, a PDEA agent, and an informant dead.
The NBI filed the charges before the Department of Investigation after its investigation showed that both the PDEA and the PNP had lapses in handling their informants and in following procedures in the conduct of anti-drug operations that led to the shootout outside a mall in Quezon City, a firefight later dubbed as a mis-encounter.
The charges filed include homicide, attempted homicide, direct assault, robbery, grave misconduct, falsification of public documents and conniving with or consenting to evasion.
Charged with homicide for the death of Cpl. Eric Elvin Garado were PDEA agents Jelou Satiniaman, Jeffrey Baguidudol and Khee Maricas Rodas while another PDEA agent, Romeo Asuncion, was charged in connection with the death of Cpl. Lauro de Guzman.
The NBI charged Cpl. Alvin Borja for the death of PDEA agent Rankin Gano.
But the NBI has yet to identify the person responsible for the death of PDEA informant Untong Matalnas.
Satiniaman was also charged with attempted homicide for the wounding of Lt. Ronnie Ereno while the same charge was also filed against Ereno and Corporals Borja, Marlon Masiclat, Ronilo Prepose, Kason Coranez, Aries Curit, Marco Tapanan and James Dasalla for the wounding of PDEA agent Martin Matthew Soriano and another agent identified only as Baguidudol.
Direct assault with physical injuries, direct assault with less serious physical injuries, and direct assault were filed against Maj. Sandie Caparroso, Lt. Honey Besas and Cpl. Paul Christian Ganzeda and other unidentified police officers.
The NBI also filed falsification of official documents against Baguidudol while Caparroso, Ganzeda and Besas were charged with robbery.
Caparroso, Besas, Ereno and another cop, Cpl. Christoper Besas, were also charged for conniving or consenting to evasion.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra had earlier said it was taking the NBI sometime to complete the probe due to the huge trove of evidence, mostly taken from the mobile phones of the involved PDEA and PNP operatives.
“Aside from the tedious process of obtaining cyber warrants, our forensic investigations have had to examine meticulously an average of 22,000 pages of text messages, call logs, videos and pictures per mobile phone,” Guevarra said last month.
During a hearing of the Senate public order and dangerous drugs committee last May on the mis-encounter, NBI-NCR Director Cesar Bacani said inmate Melvin Magallon was dictating the tempo of the drug transactions that led to the clash.
Magallon is detained at the Sablayan Penal Colony in Occidental Mindoro on illegal possession of firearms charges.
