TANAUAN CITY, Philippines--The killing of three men suspected by police of involvement in the May 16 robbery-murders at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. branch in Cabuyao, Laguna, was a rubout, angry family members and friends said Friday.
They disputed the police claim that Vivencio Javier, Angelito Malabanan and Rolly Lachica--all residents of Barangay Pagaspas--engaged lawmen in a shootout early Thursday.
"It was not a shootout but a summary execution," Javier's widow, Olive Javier, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Said Javier's elder brother, Ricardo Javier: "They killed innocent people who committed no crime and lived ordinary lives."
He said police killed his brother merely to show the public that the robbery-murders had been solved.
Other Pagaspas residents said Malabanan, 40, and Lachica, 50, were weeders and caretakers at the poultry farm of Barangay Captain Servillano Javier, a brother of Vivencio Javier, 55.
They said the Javiers belonged to a landed family in Tanauan.
Police had earlier said the three men were killed as they shot it out with a Task Force RCBC team.
Some eight hours earlier in Barangay 4 Poblacion, lawmen gunned down one Pepito Magsino in another shootout, police had said. Magsino was also suspected of involvement in the robbery-murders.
'Legitimate shootouts'
Reached on the phone for comment, Senior Supt. David Quimio, Batangas police director, said: "It's [the relatives'] word against ours.
"Ask the people in town what kind of people they were."
Quimio said what happened on Wednesday and Thursday were legitimate operations.
"Our troops were just doing surveillance when the suspects started firing at them," he said. "I was not there but I believe those were legitimate shootouts."
Echoing an earlier claim of police officials, including Philippine National Police Director General Avelino Razon, Quimio said the men killed were members of robbery-holdup groups in Southern Tagalog.
'Too much'
But according to Olive Javier, her husband, a former barangay captain of Pagaspas, had never been involved in any robbery.
"This is too much. They have killed my husband Viveng and still they are linking him to evil acts," she said.
This was how the widow recounted the turn of events on Thursday:
At around 12 a.m., a loud noise was heard from outside before policemen in plainclothes forcibly entered the Javier residence.
They asked for Vivencio Javier but presented no warrant. Olive went upstairs to awaken her sleeping husband.
Vivencio came down to the living room and upon seeing him, the team leader said: "Are you the kapitan? We have something to ask."
Vivencio nodded, and the policemen led him outside.
Olive, sensing that something was amiss, put her arms around her husband. But two policemen shoved her into a room, shut the door and told her not to come out.
Two of the Javier sons were ordered to stoop and face the wall.
Olive was held in the room for 10 minutes. While inside, worrying that her husband and children would be killed, she heard gunshots.
When she emerged, she saw Viveng on the floor, his face soaking in his own blood.
Children in the house
Ricardo Javier said it would have been impossible for Vivencio to start shooting, or even to shoot back.
"Who in his right frame of mind would do that, knowing his family was in the house?" the elder brother said.
Olive said that during the raid, five of the Javier children and a year-old grandchild were in the house.
She also said the raiding team barged into the children's rooms and took six cell phones and two Playstations.
"Viveng's licensed gun was taken from under his bed and was used to make it appear that he started the shooting," Olive said.
She said even the money in her husband's wallet was missing.
The family is preparing to file a complaint against the police team.
Ricardo Javier said the police should be held accountable to ensure that such an incident would not happen again.
"It is no longer safe. You are being killed inside the comfort of your house. And worse, by policemen," he said.
Pagaspas, a kilometer and a half away from Tanauan proper, is a peaceful village, some of its residents said.
Placards bearing the messages "Justice for Kapitan Viveng!" and "Point, Shoot, Kill. Is that justice nowadays?" have been installed around Vivencio Javier's house.
On Thursday, Sr. Supt. Aaron Fidel, head of Task Force RCBC and police deputy regional director for operations (not of the Batangas police, as earlier reported) described Pagaspas as an upland barangay where many wanted criminals often sought refuge.
Relatives of Angelito Malabanan and Rolly Lachica said the two men were killed about 100 meters away from where Vivencio Javier was shot dead.
They said they had found the two men's bodies in the funeral parlor.
The houses in the area are near each other. Gunshot marks were still visible on a window of the Javier house and the gate of the poultry farm.
Good son
"I don't know why it happened. My son Angelito was never involved in illegal activities. He just took care of the roosters and fed them," said Annie Malabanan.
She said her son usually spent the night in Servillano Javier's house to look after the roosters.
She described him as a good son who always cooked for his siblings.
"It was painful that he was brutally killed. He was shot at close range, and his face was smashed," she said.
Malabanan had 14 gunshot wounds in the body, according to his mother.
A neighbor, Flora Cabrera, said she did not believe police allegations regarding Malabanan.
"He was a good man. And he was very good to his mother," she said.
Men in uniform
At a press conference Friday in Camp Crame, Task Force RCBC chief Fidel said two of those behind the May 16 robbery-murders were "men in uniform," but declined to elaborate.
He said two others were members of a robbery-holdup syndicate operating in Calabarzon.
"We have six suspects. The identities of the four have been established. Two of them are involved in a series of robberies in our area," Fidel said.
He refused to name names, saying police operations were still under way.
He said the identities of the six men were based on witness accounts, and that one was familiar to at least three witnesses.
P12M taken by robbers
Fidel also said "dragnet operations" conducted after the robbery-murders led to the recovery of a getaway vehicle, from which the identities of the two of the six men were discovered.
"They were inside the bank even before it opened," Fidel said, adding:
"A group cannot carry out a bank robbery without conducting its own surveillance and background check of the bank. We believe they have a contact inside. But unfortunately, everyone who was inside was killed...If there was anyone alive, there would have been witnesses. That's why everyone was killed."
Nine persons were killed on the spot at RCBC Cabuyao. A 10th victim, died two days later. They were all shot in the head.
Fidel said some P12 million was taken.
According to Fidel, investigators are having a hard time with one of the two bank security guards taken in custody for questioning.
"One of the two guards changed his account...On our second questioning, he wasn't consistent anymore," Fidel said.
He said a background check was being conducted on the guard.
Protesting innocence
Fidel also insisted that the four men shot dead in Tanauan on Wednesday and Thursday were killed in shootouts with police.
He said relatives of crime suspects usually protested the innocence of their kin.
But he reiterated his initial statement that police could not as yet officially say that the four men were involved in the RCBC robbery-murders, "although we can't discount that possibility."
"We are waiting for the report from [scene of the crime operatives]," he said.
Fidel said the operations in Batangas were a product of police investigation, and that the killing of the four men could have been avoided if they had willingly gone with the police.
He added that two other men had been taken in for questioning.
"[The policemen involved in the operations] are ready to face charges...What happened was part of operations against loose firearms. One of the suspects even shot one of our policemen," Fidel said.
