THE Philippine National Police (PNP) will file charges against three persons for allegedly obstructing the ongoing investigation on the killing of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant Randy Malayao.
Police Regional Office-Cagayan Valley Director Jose Mario Espino said charges of obstruction of justice, grave coercion and grave threat will be filed against Edu Balgos, legal counsel of activist group Karapatan; his wife Rina, who is a former board member of Nueva Vizcaya; and Malayao’s sister Perla, who is an employee of the Department of the Interior and Local Government National Capital Region.
Malayao was killed on January 30 while sleeping on board an Isabela-bound bus in Nueva Vizcaya around 2 a.m.
Nueva Vizcaya Police Director Jeremias Agglugub and Aritao Municipal Police Station head Chief Inspector Geovanni Cejes were ordered relieved by PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde due to mishandling of vital pieces of evidence on the case.
In particular, Cejes allegedly allowed the release of several pieces of evidence, including Malayao’s cellphone, which could have contained information that may help the ongoing investigation.
“We have lost thousands of valuable intelligence information about the CPP/NPA/NDF including their leaders led by Jose Ma. Sison with the release of the laptop computer, six cell phones and other valuable pieces of evidence found in the victim’s possession to his family,” said Espino.
However, Espino said Cejes was just threatened by the Balgoses.
Cejes said Rina introduced herself as a relative of Malayao and asked the police to give her the victim’s valuables and questioned the police process on investigating the case.
Cejes said he tried to explain to Rina that the ongoing process, particularly the keeping of the victim’s things as part of investigation, is part of their Standard Operating Procedure.
He said Peral arrived and initially allowed the police to keep his brother’s valuable but changed her mind after being confronted by Rina.
Cejes said Edu then came and confronted him.
“Anong karapatan mo na i-hold ang mga gamit ng biktima, violation ng human rights yan, di mo alam ang ginagawa mo,” Cejes said Edu told him.
Cejes said he tried to explain that the said pieces of evidence will be included in the filing of charges against the suspects in the killing, but Perla said they are no longer interested in pursuing the case.
Meanwhile, the Cagayan Valley police released the CCTV footage that captured Malayao’s killing.
In the CCTV footage, a man was caught taking a picture of the bus where Malayao boarded as it left its terminal in Quezon City around 9 p.m. of January 29.
When the bus made a stop-over in Aritao, two men were caught smoking outside the bus and one of them boarded the bus minutes later and shot Malayao to death.