DOJ subpoenas 3 cops tagged in prosecutor’s slay

The family of a Quezon City prosecutor who was shot dead last year will come face-to-face for the first time with three police officers charged with killing him.

Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong, acting Quezon City chief prosecutor, has ordered SPO2 Rodante Sicat Lalimarmo, PO3 Arthur Yasonia Lucy and PO1 Jose Lunar Mercado to attend the preliminary investigation of their case in the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Manila at 2 p.m. on Monday.

The three policemen, along with eight other unidentified suspects, are charged with the murder of Rogelio Velasco, Quezon City deputy prosecutor and chief inquest prosecutor.

Velasco was ambushed by at least two men on Holy Spirit Drive in Quezon City on May 11 last year. Forensic investigators counted at least 20 bullet holes in his van.

His daughter, Maria, who was with him, survived the attack which happened despite a gun ban that was in effect for the barangay elections.

The Velasco family—his wife and five children—are under the protection of the Batasan police station.

The preliminary investigation was transferred from the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office to the DOJ based on a request from Lalimarmo’s lawyer “to avoid possible bias in the conduct of the investigation.”

Eight other suspects who were identified through the footage taken by a closed-circuit television camera have yet to be arrested.

The National Bureau of Investigation said that  Velasco’s killing could be work-related.