Wednesday, October 18, 2006 Nothing from IBP yet: NBI
ALEX Tolentino, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu City chapter president, failed to deliver.
He facilitated a meeting between himself and the ranking officers of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) at a posh restaurant inside the Cebu Business Park Monday night to hand over a list identifying the people behind the vigilante-killings in the city.
But a source said “only the menu changed hands.”
Sun.Star Cebu tried but failed to get Tolentino for comment. Calls to his mobile phone remained unanswered.
NBI 7 Director Medardo de Lemos, who did not come to the meeting, warded off criticisms against the IBP officer though, saying Tolentino might have been simply doing “exploratory talk.”
“I’d rather think that the documents are still forthcoming,” he said. “If he gives any information or brings forth a witness, we will conduct the necessary interviews and evaluate the facts right away. Only then can we take off.”
At City Hall, Mayor Tomas Osmeña merely joked about the report that the IBP already submitted the names and pictures of suspected vigilantes and their supposed mastermind.
“How did my picture look like? If you want my picture, you can take it now,” he said with a chuckle when reporters sought him for his comments.
But he became serious when he said the IBP should have filed the case in court already.
“Just file your case in court. It’s more understandable if this came from the business sector because they (businessmen) won’t know how to file a case. But the IBP? It’s president? They don’t know how to file a case?” the mayor said.
So far, 175 persons were gunned down by suspected vigilantes since the killings started in December 2004.
The Homicide Section of the Cebu City Police Office expressed willingness to assist the NBI 7 in its investigation on the vigilante-style killings.
SPO2 Jay Yballe, chief investigator of the Homicide Section, in an interview with reporters yesterday, said they are willing to furnish copies of the documents of those victimized by the masked men.
Osmeña earlier called the lawyers’ group “very pathetic” when Tolentino announced last Aug. 29 that their investigation on the vigilante killings has gained ground, and that they had details as to who the “mercenaries and murderers are.”
The mayor felt he was being alluded to, and said the IBP is mad at him for describing them as “siding with criminals.”
Acting CCPO Chief Melvin Gayotin, in previous interviews, said they have been trying their best to unmask those involved in the killings, but the lack of witnesses have kept them from pursuing the cases.
The NBI has been documenting the vigilante killings since January 2005.
According to de Lemos, they have folders of police reports, autopsy findings and laboratory analysis of some physical evidence.
But no charges have been filed because investigators lack a crucial element—the testimony of a witness.
“Nobody has been identified. We need somebody who can give us a name that corresponds to an incident and a victim. Let’s start with one,” de Lemos said.
Tolentino earlier announced that his IBP chapter, which launched some sort of a fact-finding mission on the subject, had the names of six to eight people a witness has identified as those behind the rash of shootings tagged as the work of vigilantes.
He never released the names but said he might give it to the Melo Commission in Manila, which looked into the killings of journalists and activists. (KNR/RHM/JST)
