Sunday, October 22, 2006 6 cops in Salabas kidnap-slay 'missing' By Erwin Ambo S. Delilan and Nicolas C. Delfin
THE Regional Trial Court in Guihulngan, Negros Oriental has ordered the arrest of six police officers, including Senior Inspector Clarence Dongail of the Western Visayas Police Office and Bacolod Police Precinct commanders Jimmy Fortaleza and Jonathan Lorilla.
Also ordered arrested were SPO2 Freddie Natividad, PO2 Allen Winston Hulleza, and PO1 Bernardo Cimatu and civilians Manolo Escalante, Elma Mamerto, Elson Cañete, Ronnie Herrera, Lorraine Abay, Jude Montilla, Julie Flores, Ramonito Estanislao, and Carlo de los Santos.
The arrest warrant stemmed from the kidnapping and murder three years ago of former Bacolod's Barangay Pahanocoy captain Eleuterio "Dodong" Salabas, his nephew Maximo Lomoljo and Cagayan de Oro native and Maritime instructor Ricardo Suganob.
As this developed, both Police Regional Director for Western Visayas Geary Barias and Bacolod City Police Director Pedro Merced could not answer the whereabouts of the wanted police officers.
The warrants for kidnapping with murder does not recommend any bail for all 16 accused. It was issued by Judge Mario Trinidad of the Regional Trial Court Branch 64 in Guihulngan, Negros Oriental last October 18.
The case was filed before the Guihulngan Regional Trial Court, as it appeared it was in the said town that the three victims were killed although it was believed they were kidnapped in Bacolod.
Kidnapping and murder
Based on the investigation conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), at around 12 midnight of August 31, 2003, Dongail and 15 others, who were riding in a red Toyota Revo and white Mazda 323, suddenly blocked the way of Salabas, Suganob, and Lomoljo along the national highway in Barangay Tangub, Bacolod City.
Dongail, formerly dubbed as "Drug Buster" of Bacolod, and his 15 companions then forcibly brought the victims to several secluded places in Negros Island, the NBI report said.
Two days after, Suganob's body was found along the seashore in Bago City, Negros Occidental. The following day Lomoljo's body was found floating in the Pulupandan waters.
Salabas's body, already decomposed, was found only on September 19 in Punta Buri, Ajuy, Iloilo City.
Both accused Dongail and Hulleza are now detailed at the Police Regional Office-Western Visayas in Iloilo while Fortaleza and Lorilla are currently commanders of Bacolod Police Precincts 1 and 6, respectively.
Natividad and Cimatu, on the other hand, are also detailed at PP1 and PP2.
All of them, however, cannot be located as of Friday.
Barias, however, assured the public that he will locate Dongail and Hulleza as soon as possible.
"As far as I know, both Dongail and Hulleza are now at the PNP Headquarters in Camp Crame to follow-up on their cases," Barias said.
Merced gave the same answer when asked about the whereabouts of his four men.
"I don't know. I cannot contact them anymore. The last time I heard of them was before the warrants came out and I knew that they are still in Manila to also follow-up on their cases," Merced said.
But in case the policemen can't settle their cases and will continue to hide, he said he has no choice but to arrest them.
"We need to follow the law and the warrants recommended no bail for all the accused," Merced stressed.
Sun.Star-Bacolod tried to contact the policemen-suspects through their mobile phones but could not be contacted as of Friday night.
Disgusted
Merced, however, knew that his policemen were really disgusted about the resurrection of the case because they were not notified that the case was re-filed at the Department of Justice (DOJ) recently.
He claimed that the same court ordered the case dismissed in October 2004. However, this could not be immediately verified.
Had the accused been acquitted, a criminal complaint arising from the same incident could no longer be re-filed as it would result to a double jeopardy.
Merced added that the family of the victims led by the Salabas and his brother-in-law Tom Orola in Bacolod raised the issue before the DOJ.
Orola was the one who brought the copies of the warrants of arrest to Merced's office Friday and later distributed it to the media people.
Orola, however, refused to comment yet on the case.
Elizabeth Orola-Salabas, widow of the late village chief, cannot be contacted for comment Friday night.
Drugs or money debt?
The Salabas-Suganob-Lumoljo kidnap-slay case had been linked to alleged illegal drug transaction or money debt of Salabas to Escalante, a known financier at the Casino Filipino Hotel in Bacolod.
This as Salabas was allegedly accused of transacting illegal drugs at the college owned by the Orola and was also accused of having unpaid debt to Escalante City, which is about P300,000.
The Salabases and the Orolas, however, denied the drug or the debt angle.
Luisito Gersaniba Sr., of Barangay Banago, Bacolod stood as lone witness. He pointed Dongail as mastermind but failed to mention about Escalante.
Asset revelation
Meanwhile, in an ABS-CBN TV report yesterday, a certain "Giant" who claimed to be a former asset of Dongail, said he is now ready to reveal everything about the Salabas-Suganob-Lomuljo case.
"Pero kadamo gid sang madalahig kon ituad ko tanan," (I know a lot of people will be involved if I reveal everything), he said on television.
Giant, however, said he has no choice but to do this rather than keep the secret forever.
After all, he stressed, what he wanted for is to live and even die with a clean conscience.
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