DAVAO CITY - Three policemen facing murder charges for their involvement in the murder of a Spanish three years ago in the southern Philippines have surrendered, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
The suspects - Capt. Wise Vicente Panuelos, Sgt. Ronel Pazo, and Sgt. Nido Cantos - were all former members of the General Luna town police station in Siargao Island. They were on the run in connection with the killing of Diego Bello Lafuente and are all facing murder and planting of evidence charges at a local court.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the trio surrendered at their office on February 9. “We are now able to move forward and try the case and deliver justice in a case that has transcended borders,” Remulla told reporters. “I can’t promise anything except a fair trial. The prosecutor’s decision depends on the evidence.”
Lafuente, a businessman and a surfer based in Siargao Island, had been tagged by the police as a drug lord and was killed during a law enforcement operation participated by the suspects on January 8, 2020 in General Luna town.
The three policemen claimed they were forced to defend themselves when the Spanish man allegedly resisted arrest. A .45 caliber pistol and cocaine weighing 8.3326 grams were allegedly recovered from Lafuente following the gunfight.
“Although there were no eyewitnesses in the killing of Diego Lafuente, the recommendations of the panel of prosecutors were based on the Scene of the Crime Office report and forensic results that disproved the claim of respondents of a shootout. The crossmatching examination revealed that the 9mm FCC matched with and was fired from the firearm of Ssgt. Cortes,” the DOJ said.
In November last year, a court in Manila convicted a policeman for torturing two teenagers and planting evidence on the boys who were later found dead under then-President Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial drug war.
Officer Jeffrey Perez was found guilty of violating the country’s anti-torture law and for planting evidence on the two teenagers, according to Judge Rodrigo Pascua Jr., of the Regional Trial Court Branch 122 in Caloocan City.
Among other punishments, the judge sentenced Perez to two life terms in prison and disqualified him from ever seeking employment as a public officer.
In November 2018, a court also found three police officers guilty and sentenced each – Arnel Oares, Jeremias Pereda and Jerwin Cruz – up to 40 years in prison, without parole, for killing a 17-year-old student, Kian Loyd delos Santos in connection with the government anti-illegal drugs camapaign.
More than 8,000 suspected drug addicts and dealers were killed under Duterte's drug war since he became president in 2016. He actively told members of the police force that he would protect them from prosecution if they were charged, as long as the deaths occurred while they were performing their mandate as law enforcement officers.
During his term from 2016-2022, Duterte also withdrew the Philippines from an international treaty that created the International Criminal Court (ICC) and he repeatedly argued that he would not allow himself to be subjected to an international trial.
Recently, ICC approved its prosecutor’s request to restart the investigation into the thousands of killings allegedly linked to Duterte’s war on drugs. In late 2021, when Duterte was still in office, The Hague-based court suspended its investigation saying it would assess a Philippines request for it to defer to Manila’s own investigation into the drug war. (Jeoffrey Maitem)
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