AFTER finding a probable cause, the Negros Occidental Provincial Prosecutor's Office has approved the filing of murder charges in court Tuesday, January 25, against a member of a force multiplier group for the death of his policeman friend assigned in Bacolod City.
Hinigaran Municipal Police Station chief Captain Ryan Villasario told SunStar Bacolod that based on the result of their investigation, Constancio Canoy, 38, of Barangay Granada in Bacolod City, intentionally killed his friend Corporal Nestor Madelo.
Madelo, 37, of Barangay Punta Taytay in Bacolod City, was assigned at the city's Police Station 5.
He was found dead beside a sugarcane plantation in Barangay Pilar past 8 a.m. of January 23 with wounds on his face and bruises all over his body. Canoy initially denied involvement in the incident.
Madelo's parents, however, said Canoy was last seen with their son on January 22 before the latter was found dead.
Later, Canoy admitted that he dumped Madelo's body after they figured in a traffic collision along the highway of Bago City.
The suspect said he was driving the policeman's multicab and they were on their way home coming from Bantayan Park in Bago City when they accidentally hit a truck loaded with sugarcane.
Asked why he did not seek medical attention, Canoy claimed that he was rattled.
But Villasario said that based on the circumstances surrounding the case, pieces of evidence gathered and witnesses accounts showed that Canoy intentionally killed the victim by crashing the multicab into the truck.
He said Canoy did not bother to seek assistance nor bring Madelo to the hospital to save his life when he has a lot of time to do so since the collision could have occurred between 11 p.m. of January 22 to midnight of the following day.
"It is now up to him to defend himself," Villasario stressed, adding that he is appealing to other people who may have knowledge of the crime to come out and stand as witnesses to strengthen the case against the suspect.