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Sunday, April 03, 2005
Cab driver links cop to slay of Baguio journalist
By Ernie N. Olson Jr.
BAGUIO CITY -- A taxi driver who reportedly witnessed the slaying of radio station dzEO Radyo ng Bayan employee Rogelio Villafuerte said a local policeman shot the victim along Leonard Wood Road two months ago.
Villafuerte's alleged assailant, who was reportedly with another male companion on board a white Kia Pride car, was identified by the eyewitness as Senior Police Officer Marciano Soya-ao Chulyao, who was formerly assigned at Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) Station 3 in Pacdal and has since been transferred to BCPO Station 6 in Aurora Hill.
Villafuerte, a technician of the government-owned radio station, had just reportedly arrived in Baguio that night from Naguilian, La Union, where he celebrated his 38th birthday with his family. He was reported to be the first media man killed in the country this year.
Lawyer Edgar Avila, counsel for the heirs of the victim, said aside from the witness recognizing Chulyao as a Baguio policeman on the night of the incident, his photo was also picked out from a choice of five presented to him by detectives of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).
The witness told PNP-CIDG investigators that while he was passing the Botanical Garden at around 9 p.m. last January 26, he noticed two white Kia Pride cars parked on both sides of Leonard Wood Road, and saw two men alighting from the vehicle parked on his left side.
When he was passing in between both vehicles, about five meters away from the two men, he noticed one of them opening Villafuerte's car door and pulling him out. Seconds later, a gunshot rang out, prompting him to drive faster away from the crime scene.
Before the shooting, the witness said he only noticed that the victim's car license plates had the numbers 261, that he was wearing a black bonnet and his gunman was wearing a black jacket and a pair of denim pants.
The gunman's companion, who reportedly also dashed across the street to the victim's car when he passed by them, was wearing a dark colored t-shirt and a pair of denim pants then.
"When I reached Maria Basa Street, another man flagged down the taxi I was driving and instructed me to bring him to Session Road. When I passed by the crime scene on the way back, policemen were already investigating the crime scene," he told investigators in the vernacular. He said the other car was not in the area anymore.
The witness added he only found out that the victim was a journalist when he heard a radio report about the crime the following morning.
But Chulyao, in a meeting with BCPO director Isagani Nerez and top police officials denied any involvement in Villafuerte's slay.
Nerez said if Chulyao wants to prove his innocence, he had to voluntarily undergo a polygraph or lie detector test.
He also told Chulyao that he had to undergo the necessary administrative sanctions in the meantime, since the sworn statement of the eyewitness had already been filed before the City Prosecutor's Office.
"Since you have been positively identified by an eyewitness to be involved in the crime, you have to at least show some evidence or come up with an opposing witness to controvert his statement, before you can expect the BCPO to provide you a legal counsel. In the meantime, you have to provide yourself with your own, in fairness to the heirs of the victim," Nerez said.
Avila said the witness to the shooting had already gone into hiding after linking Chulyao to the crime, adding the taxi driver fears for his life, especially that two of the latter's alternate drivers have recently been involved in attempts on their lives.
One of his alternate drivers was also reportedly shot, while another barely survived a stabbing attack in Baguio several weeks ago.
Recently, a lady journalist from Tacurong City was shot point blank while inside her house playing with her 10-year-old son.
Marlene Esperat was the third journalist killed this year and the 65th since 1986.
Two other journalists, Max Quindao of Tagum City and Pabs Hernandez of the Metro Manila tabloid Bulgar, survived separate murder attempts.
On February 28, gunmen killed Arnulfo Villanueva, a columnist for the Asian Star Express based in Naic, Cavite.
(April 3, 2005 issue)
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