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Friday, December 28, 2007
Kin ask NBI to probe slay of cop
By Jovy S. Taghoy and Karlon N. Rama
CEBU CITY -- The family of PO1 Calvin Dinampo, 32, is asking for "a fair investigation" on his fatal shooting by a fellow policeman last Christmas Eve.
Ibar Dinopol Dinampo, the slain policeman's brother, visited the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 Thursday and asked that the justice department-attached agency to look into the killing.
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Ibar said they have witnesses willing to testify that Calvin wasn't even armed when the incident took place and that he was merely at the scene to buy firecrackers.
He wants the NBI to conduct a separate autopsy and forensic examination to verify the findings of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO).
SPO4 Pacifico Maislim and Carmencita Donan, Dinampo's uncle and aunt, told Sun.Star Cebu Thursday that they did not believe Dinampo held hostage a firecracker vendor, as what the police have claimed.
They said their nephew was the victim of an "overkill."
"He was already pinned down," Maislim said, in an interview at Dinampo's wake at St. Francis Funeral Homes in Bulacao, Talisay City. "There was no need to finish him off."
2 charges
The CCPO Homicide Section filed separate charges against PO1 Mark Anthony Manlosa before the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor Thursday.
The first charge was reckless imprudence resulting to homicide, but Assistant City Prosecutor Jose Nathaniel Andal upgraded the complaint and lodged a criminal case for homicide before the Regional Trial Court.
Bail was set at P10,000.
The second charge was for reckless imprudence resulting in physical injuries, for wounding a bystander.
Dinampo, who had been in police service four years and assigned at the Talisay PNP Station, died of gunshot wounds in the chest, pelvis and leg.
He supposedly traded shots with PO1 Manlosa of the Cebu City Tourist Assistance Center, a unit under the CCPO. The shootout allegedly took place at the corner of Gold and Silver Sts. in Barangay Tisa around 7:30 p.m. last December 24.
Too much?
But Dinampo's uncle Maislim pointed out that if Manlosa's intention was only to disable his nephew, why did the policeman have multiple gunshot wounds? Maislim is assigned at the PNP Regional Office 7's Communication Electronics (Commel) Section.
He and Dinampo's elder brother, PO3 Riolito Dinampo of Consolacion Police Station, also want Manlosa charged with a more serious offense than reckless imprudence resulting in homicide.
Homicide Section Chief Mario Monilar, in a separate interview, said he welcomed the help of other law enforcement agencies in the investigation.
"We have a common objective to arrive at justice. We are maintaining transparency. We want the truth," he said.
Both Monilar and CCPO deputy director for operations Pablo Labra II said that Manlosa's responding to an armed person alarm was legitimate.
Whether he used the appropriate amount of force to neutralize Dinampo is something the court will have to determine, they added.
"No question, it was a legitimate operation," Labra said.
"But was there a need to use all those bullets? That's something he will have to answer for in court." (Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Davao. (December 28, 2007 issue)
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