Agencies collaborate in Ellah Joy probe

Thursday, March 3, 2011

THE police and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 vowed to work together to solve the Ellah Joy Pique case.

The investigation and intelligence units in the regional and provincial police headquarters, NBI, the Bureau of Immigration, PNP Crime Laboratory 7, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Highway Patrol Group had a “unified” command conference yesterday to discuss the Pique case.

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Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Ager Ontog Jr. described the group as the “unified” team that is investigating the Pique case.

Ontog said the team will also be coordinating with the Homeland Security of the United States and the International Police (Interpol) as local law enforcers need all the help they can get to solve the abduction and killing of the six-year-old girl.

He said the team could be dealing with foreigners who may be part of a syndicate or work individually.

New witnesses

“From here on, our investigation will be one. We are doing these together and we are hoping to solve the case the soonest possible time,” Ontog told reporters after the closed-door conference.

The police said they have new leads in the case, but refused to elaborate.

NBI 7 Chief Edward Villarta said the agencies also discussed better information exchange among investigation units.

Ontog and Villarta, however, clarified that they have been working together since the investigation on the Pique case began.

As this developed, Villarta directed NBI 7 operatives to look for new witnesses in the Ellah Joy Pique case.

He said in an interview that the testimony of the three child witnesses obtained by the PNP would be easy to impeach as a result of the foiled attempt to indict Sven Erik Berger and Karen Esdrelon.

Parallel

“If we present the children in court against a new set of respondents, the defense will surely put on record how they pin-pointed other persons for the crime,” he said in Tagalog.

Villarta said the NBI is not part of the second task force headed by Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) Officer-in-Charge Louie Oppus and that the agency’s investigation on the Pique case will remain parallel.

“We will just share (information),” he explained, adding that the two agencies remain linked at the provincial level through the Provincial Task Force Against Crime.

The Office of the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor dismissed, Monday, the criminal complaint lodged by the CPPO against Berger and Esdrelon.

The dismissal came 16 days after they were taken into custody at the Mactan Cebu International Airport while awaiting their flight to Hong Kong.

No basis

In his resolution, Assistant Provincial Prosecutors Marlon Atillo and Marvin dela Peña found no basis to the allegation that the duo abducted Pique in Minglanilla last Feb. 8

"We find that the evidence against the respondents is insufficient to indict them of the crime charged," Assistant Provincial Prosecutors Marlon Atillo and Marvin dela Peña said in their resolution.

The evidence referred to by the prosecutors were the sworn statements of three children, who identified Berger and Esdrelon as the Caucasian and the Filipina who allegedly picked up Pique from school that day.

The NBI 7 obtained photos from security cameras at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino, showing the couple in the hotel’s premises around the time Pique was picked up.