DAVAO City Police Office (DCPO) director PCol. Alberto Lupaz revealed that nine personnel affiliated with former Toril Police Station Major Michael Uyanguren were temporarily relieved from their position to hasten the investigation process of the Uyanguren-Saldua case.
The official bared in a special media briefing on Friday morning, November 3, 2023, that such action was conducted due to the element of the crime. However, he assured that an impartial and balanced investigation was being done for both parties.
“Ginawa namin ito para mapadali maresolba ang kaso because it has been months na wala pa gihapon nagpakita ang house help [of Uyanguren]. Nine ni sila kabook na mga personnel ni Uyanguren ang gipang-relieve para to make sure na ma-actionan ang kaso (We did this to swiftly resolve the case because it has been months that the house help [of Uyanguren] hasn't shown up. Nine of Uyanguren's personnel were relieved to make sure that the case will be acted upon),” he said.
However, despite the conduct of three sessions by Special Investigation Task Group-Saldua (SITG-Saldua), Lupaz revealed that they find it difficult to resolve the case since CCTV footage that could help the investigation could not be retrieved because of a major reason: videos are permanently deleted after a month.
To recall, 21-year-old Justine Mae Saldua was last seen on August 28 but the matter was reported first by her family to Senator Raffy Tulfo through his television program aired on September 28, exactly a month after Saldua was reported missing.
Currently, the official has yet to publicly disclose the result of the investigation and the exact timeline for the case resolution due to lack of evidence.
“Wala pa gyuy exact timeline when ni sya masulbad kay no body, no crime (There is no exact timeline yet because no body, no crime),” Lupaz concluded. DEF
