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Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Polio victim seeks CHR probe on his arrest
By Rose O. Verzosa/Oscar C. Pineda
THE polio victim whom the Compostela police arrested last Friday has asked the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas to investigate his arrest and detention.
Elmer Antogop Ruta, 31 of Barangay Maslog, Danao City was jailed last Friday after he was served a warrant of arrest for the frustrated murder of a construction worker in Lapu-Lapu City. But Ruta claimed he is the wrong man and that he only bears the same name as the one in the warrant.
A certain Elmer Ruta of Compostela, Cebu is facing a frustrated murder charge before the Lapu-Lapu City Regional Trial Court Branch 27 for trying to kill his fellow construction worker, Armando Ornopia, on May 7, 2001 in Barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu.
Ornopia and the suspect were having a drinking spree when the two suddenly had an argument that led to a stabbing incident. The suspect fled and his whereabouts remained unknown.
Witness
Ruta’s relatives went to the construction firm where the real suspect and Ornopia had once
worked.
Nicolas Bocado, an employee of Geo Construction based inside the Cebu Light Industries, said the person who was arrested in Danao City and who is now detained at the Lapu-Lapu City detention cell is not the same person who tried to kill their fellow worker.
Ruta’s relatives tried to secure a file photograph of the real suspect but the company refused.
Ruta has asked Gov. Pablo Garcia, Police Regional Director Roberto Delfin, Police Provincial Director Maximo Calimlim and the court to order his release. He also asked the governor to penalize the policemen who arrested him without verifying first the true identity of the suspect.
He also asked the CHR and the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate the incident.
Ruta, a vendor at the Consolacion public market, accompanied his cousin to the Compostela Police Station last Friday to follow up a complaint.
Incident
A motorcycle driven by a policeman bumped his cousin last June and the policeman promised compensation if he will not file a complaint.
They were at the police station when PO1 Oliver Rondina, Ruta’s classmate during his elementary years, showed him the warrant.
Lapu-Lapu City policemen, led by SPO1 Rodlfo Amodia, arrived and brought him to the city detention center.
The warrant of arrest, charge sheet and information only bears the name of Elmer Ruta without any middle name.
The arrested market said he could not be the same person charged with frustrated murder because being a polio victim, he could never be a construction worker.
(October 29, 2003 issue)
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