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Wednesday, January 08, 2003
Dacer slay suspect murdered in Cavite
CEBU -- Supt. Teofilo Viña, former chief of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF)-Visayas, was gunned down Tuesday night by a civilian in Tanza, Cavite.
Viña was about to sit down to have dinner about 7 p.m. at a councilor-friend's house when he was shot at close range, according to late GMA 7 television report. He took six bullets from a .9mm revolver.
The suspect, Megar Cruz, 27, was immediately arrested by Cavite police and put under tactical interrogation.
Viña, who hailed from Cavite, was declared dead on arrival at the General Trias hospital in Cavite, a province south of Manila.
The motive for the killing has yet to be established.
Viña had been linked to the double murder of Manila-based publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito on Nov. 24, 2000. He had denied involvement in the case.
He was closely identified with then PNP chief, now Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who was also the PAOCTF national chief.
Another suspect in the Dacer case, PO2 Tomas Sarmiento, also a former PAOCTF-Visayas member, was flown to Manila Monday, after his arrest last Monday in Cebu City.
Two farmers who were arrested in Cavite in March 2001 pointed to Viña as the one who gave them the orders to kill Dacer, a PR man of former president Fidel Ramos who was said to be behind the bad publicity of then president Joseph Estrada.
The PNP had declared Viña absent without official leave after he failed to report to his new assignment in Camp Crame in April 2001.
Viña's killing followed the murder of Cebuano Supt. John Campos, another close of ally of Lacson, in Parañaque City last Dec. 5.
In the case of Sarmiento, there were tears in his eyes as he kissed his youngest child, a one-year-old daughter, who was sleeping in the arms of his wife.
He also bid goodbye to his two older sons, aged six and four.
But Sarmiento hopes he will be back with his family soon as his lawyer and father Alfonso Sarmiento will ask the court for a reinvestigation of the case at the prosecutor's level.
Alfonso, a former judge and a retired graft investigator, also asked Branch 18 of the Regional Trial Court in Manila to recall the arrest warrant issued against his son.
Sarmiento was on duty at the Pardo Police Station when he was picked up by operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 7 Monday afternoon.
Sarmiento voluntarily went with the CIDG 7 police after he learned that he has an arrest warrant issued by Judge Edelwina Catubig.
Among the grounds for his lawyer to ask for the recall of the warrant and for reinvestigation: there was no preliminary investigation and clarificatory hearing conducted prior to the filing of the double murder case.
Sarmiento denied his involvement in the killing, saying he was in Cebu when Dacer, a close ally of former president Fidel Ramos, and his driver were abducted in Manila last Nov. 24, 2000.
The day before, he was reported to be among the police officers who raided a drug suspect in Ermita. The following day, he reportedly filed the case before the City Prosecutor's Office.
Sarmiento was still assigned with Carbon police during the abduction, and his former chief Senior Insp. Tomas Santander Jr., now Special Weapons and Tactics team chief, executed an affidavit attesting that Sarmiento was on duty on the said dates.
Sarmiento admitted that in September 1998 to March 1999, he was assigned to the defunct Presidential Organized Crime Task Force in Manila.
But because of his wish to pursue his law studies, Sarmiento asked for his reassignment to PRO 7. In April 1999, he was assigned back to the Cebu City Police Office.
Sarmiento said he was shocked to learn he was included in the case when during the height of the controversy, he reported to Manila and presented evidence that he was in Cebu during the abduction. Sun.Star Cebu |
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