MANILA, Philippines — The police officers tagged in the death of Quezon City deputy city prosecutor Rogelio Velasco in May last year appeared before the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday and denied the murder complaint filed against them.
During the preliminary investigation on Tuesday, Senior Police Officer 2 Rodante Laimarmo, Police Officer 3 Arthur Lucy, and Police Officer 1 Jose Mercado submitted their respective counter-affidavits and sought the dismissal of the murder charges filed by Velasco’s family and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against them.
In their separate counter-affidavits, the police officers said they do not know each other to be able to conspire to kill the prosecutor.
“First and foremost, for the information of the Honorable Investigating State Prosecutor, I do not know personally the two other named respondents in this present complaint nor have I met them personally or professionally before,” PO3 Lucy said.
Laimarmo and Mercado also denied knowing each other.
All three aid they were not anywhere near Holy Spirit Drive in Barangay Holy Spirit in Quezon City on the day Velasco was attacked.
“Such conspiracy theory is baseless and unfounded. Respondents SPO2 Rodante Laimarmo does not know and have not seen his co-respondents in this case,” read Laimarmo’s sworn answer.
He said he went to the Quezon City Memorial Circle — as seen on the CCTV footage — to meet a prospective buyer of his Toyota Fortuner. He insisted that he was at the QC Circle but not at the City Hall where the NBI alleged that he was seen making a surveillance.
Lucy, on the other hand, claimed that he was serving an arrest warrant in Payatas at the time of Velasco’s killing around noon on May 11, 2018.
“The act of including me as one of the assailant or conspired in the act or commission of the crime of murder against the life of Prosecutor Velasco in Quezon City is ridiculous, malicious, baseless and outrageous,” Lucy said in his counter-affidavit.
Mercado, meanwhile, said he was on duty at the provincial police office in Candelaria, Quezon when the incident happened.
He said it was impossible for him to travel to Quezon City for about four hours and participate in the killing of Velasco.
The NBI in its complaint cited CCTV footage showing the three respondents entering Quezon Memorial Circle using a white Toyota Innova as well as a black Toyota Fortuner. They also cited statements from witnesses.
The NBI alleged that the suspects left the Quezon City Memorial Circle some 15 to 20 minutes prior to the crime.
The prosecutor was driving his red Toyota Innova along Holy Spirit Drive in Barangay Holy Spirit when he was shot.
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The NBI believed that Velasco’s killing could be work-related.
The DOJ panel set the next hearing for March 11 for filing of reply by the complainants.
The complaint was initially filed by the NBI before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office in September last year, but it was transferred to the DOJ upon request of the respondents. /ee
READ: Murder case filed vs suspects in killing of QC deputy prosecutor