PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Monday, October 28, floated the possibility that the police were behind the ambush that killed Clarin, Misamis Occidental mayor David Navarro.
He ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate the killing and, at the same time, ordered the Philippine National Police (PNP) to drop its investigation to ensure “fair” findings on the case.
“To make it really fair, I’d like to order the police to terminate their investigations and hand it to the NBI, whatever documents and all proof and evidence they have in their hands,” he said.
“Mas gusto kong NBI na lang para walang... Kasi noong nangyari ‘yun, kasama ang pulis (I want the NBI to take over so there will be no [impartial findings]. Because when that happened, the police were there),” Duterte said in an interview with Palace reporters Monday.
Navarro was in police custody when he was gunned down on October 25, 2019 in Cebu City.
“Ano ang ginawa ng PNP? Baka sila ang pumatay. Well, anyway, nag-iimbestiga pa (What did the PNP do? Perhaps, they killed him. Well, anyway, there’s an ongoing investigation),” he added.
Navarro, who was on Duterte’s narco-list, was killed while on his way to the Cebu City Prosecutor's Office for an inquest proceeding over a complaint for slight physical injuries filed by a massage parlor attendant.
He had been in Cebu City for a workshop and had gone to the massage parlor on the night of October 23, where he allegedly punched the attendant and ordered a female attendant to give him a hand job.
Navarro was arrested on October 24, and was booked at detained at the Abellana Police Station, where he spent the night.
He was in a police car in the middle of a three-car convoy on the way to the Cebu City Prosecutor's Office for the inquest when four assassins with long firearms attacked and fired at the convoy at past 2 p.m. on October 25. Navarro was seated in the front passenger seat between his town police chief and his sister.
The mayor, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, was pulled out of the vehicle and shot in the head.
Police did not fire back. Neither did they pursue the gunmen. (NASE/SunStar Philippines)