PROSECUTORS have found probable cause to press murder charges against a Cagayan de Oro policeman accused of killing his own colleague in the uniform early this year.

The filing of the case against PO3 Arturo Labrador Jr. capped nearly 10 months of controversy-laden investigation, with the City Prosecutors Office inhibiting from the case amid allegations of partiality and other prosecutorial misconduct.

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In a six-page resolution promulgated Monday, the three-person special panel from the Office of the Regional State Prosecutor (ORSP) found "probable cause" to charge Labrador in the January 26 killing of PO1 Ashley Villarico.

The murder case was filed Tuesday and raffled Wednesday to the sala of Judge Gil Bollozos, presiding magistrate of the Branch 21 of the Regional Trial Court.

In indicting the policeman, the panel gave more credence to the testimonies of the only eyewitness in the case, Edilberto Mahinay, who identified Labrador as Villarico's gunman.

Prosecutors set aside the defendant's witnesses-Emelda Acut and Bonifacio Sarol-whose description of the assailant did not match to Labrador's physical built.

The panel said it was more persuaded with Mahinay's descriptions of the gunman-first recorded in a police blotter hours after the killing.

Mahinay described the assailant as "medium built" thin and about 5'4" in height.

"Respondent is closer to these descriptions given right after the incident than that one given by his (Labrador) witnesses seven months after," the resolution reads.

It added: "It has been repeatedly said that the positive identification of the assailant, when categorical and consistent and made without any ill will or motive on the part of the prosecution witnesses, prevails over alibi and denial which are negative, self-serving and undeserving of the weigh of law."

Moreover, prosecutors said any "suspicious linkage" between Mahinay and "other parties in this case" has not been established "so as to conclude that he is ill-motivated in testifying against Labrador."

Villarico, 35, was shot dead inside a videoke bar in Agora, Barangay Lapasan. His wife Arlene and father Leonardo had earlier said that a fellow police officer had sent threatening text messages to the victim before he was killed.

In his defense, Labrador said he had no grudge with Villarico, and did not even know him personally.

At the time of the incident he said he was officially on duty at Agora Police Station as intelligence operative, and even responded to the call for police assistance when Villarico was shot to death around 7:30 p.m. of January 26.

To support this claim, Labrador's immediate supervisor and two other police officers executed a joint-affidavit to attest that the respondent was with them when they responded to the crime scene.

But the prosecutors said Labrador's "alibis and defense deserve scant consideration," including the testimonies of his fellow police officers-P/Insp. Gilbert Rollen, then Agora's station commander, and POs3 Ronnie Donasco and Gregorio Sacala.

Based on the ocular inspection of the panel, prosecutors noted that the distance between the crime scene and the Agora police station just around 50 meters.

They said this rendered Labrador's claim that he was inside the police station during the incident irrelevant.

Labrador, the panel said, "could have gone to Sunrise Videoke Bar, shot the victim and went back to the police station after he fled from the place of commission as there were many routes that he could have taken from the police station to the videoke bar."