MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE 3) The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) criticized on Thursday the “overkill” with which police on Wednesday served a warrant of arrest on a suspect in the bloody May 16 robbery of the Cabuyao, Laguna branch of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC).

CHR chair Leila de Lima on Thursday turned over Jake Javier to Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Jesus Verzosa at Camp Crame in Quezon City and asked him to create a task force to protect the suspect, who has been ordered arrested by the regional trial court in Biñan, Laguna.

The warrant of arrest was issued by Judge Marino Rubio of Biñan RTC Branch 24 for Javier’s alleged involvement the bloody bank heist.

Javier, 23, is the son of Vivencio Javier, one of four men slain in what police claim was a shootout in Barangay (village) Balokbalok in Tanauan town, Batangas, during a crackdown on robbery gangs launched after the P12-million heist at the RCBC branch, in which 10 persons were murdered with shots to the head.

The families of the slain men, however, claim they were executed by the members of the police Task Force RCBC and the CHR has also said that there was no shootout in Balokbalok.

The young Javier has been under CHR protection since July 15, after he sought the agency’s help for fear he would be killed when his name emerged as a suspect in the bank robbery.

At a press conference, De Lima said they had arranged with the PNP for a “preliminary meeting” to discuss Javier’s turnover but were surprised when, at around 4 p.m. Wednesday, a heavily armed arresting team showed up.

"The arresting team came [in] full force ready to arrest him. In fact, nabulabog kami dito sa CHR [we in the CHR were alarmed] because they were in full battle gear, between 20 to 30 [men]. Parang aaresto sila ng sampung Abu Sayyaf [It was like they were out to arrest 10 Abu Sayyaf extremists]. What did they expect the CHR to do? To resist them?" De Lima said, with Javier seated beside her.

"It's like an overkill again, just like the so-called operations conducted last [May] when the four alleged suspects were killed in Tanauan, including the father of Jake, former barangay captain Vivencio Javier," De Lima said.

De Lima said the arresting team was led by a certain Superintendent Wilfredo Reyes. Five officers came to her office to meet with her while several other policemen in black uniforms deployed themselves.

But de Lima said she was surprised to see several other policemen wearing black uniforms deployed in the vicinity of the CHR.
The incident, she said, prompted her to call up Verzosa.

"But last [Tursday] night we had to secure him really. You can never tell what would happen, especially that it seems the arresting team really knows that he is in the premises [of] the CHR," De Lima said.

Aside from having Javier escorted by the special task force when he is presented to the court, De Lima said a special CHR team would also be formed to accompany him.

"The CHR team will be there to ensure his safety and security because that is the extent of our undertaking pursuant to our mandate as a human right institution," de Lima said.

And while acknowledging that it is up to the court to decide where to commit Javier, De Lima said she has asked Verzosa to place the suspect in a "neutral" detention facility, not within Laguna and Batangas, for his safety.

She said she preferred that Javier be detained in Camp Crame.

Javier’s counsel, lawyer Efimaco Magpantay, is set to file a motion requesting the court for transfer of Javier’s detention to the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame.

De Lima said "there's something very wrong" with the fact that an arresting team whose members could have links with policemen charged with multiple murder by Javier's lawyer, Harry Roque, came to the CHR to serve the arrest warrant.

Former Batangas vice governor Ricky Recto, who was at the same press conference, said it was not certain if any of the policemen charged with multiple murder by Javier and his family were among Wednesday's arresting officers.

"We don't know for sure. One thing we know is the family through…Roque has sued three colonels and almost 40 members of the PNP, members of the task force from Laguna, Batangas, Region 4. The group that came here yesterday also come from [the] Calabarzon [Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezion regional police office]. In all probability these could be a mix of the same people who were sued by the family for the murder of his father. So it's very difficult to surrender the boy to the very same people who killed his father," Recto said.

Vivencio Javier was a political supporter of Recto.

De Lima added: "In so far as the RCBC Task Force is concerned, Jake is some kind of a hot item. We do not know why," de Lima said.

The task force said Javier, his father, and the other men were members of the Lucido-Javier robbery gang.

The CHR's custody of Javier was provisional, meaning the agency would turn him over to the authorities once a court issued a warrant for his arrest.