MANILA, Philippines – The common-law husband of former Makati City Mayor Junjun Binay’s long-time aide, who was gunned down last week, refuted the statement of a Makati police official that his wife’s killing is not an election-related crime.
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In a statement on Monday, Roderico Millarez tagged as “unprofessional” the statement of Chief Inspector Gideon Ines, of the Makati Police’s Criminal Investigation Division.
“As far as I know, if there are cases being investigated, the authorities will not issue any statement, speculation or conclusion with regard to the conduct of their investigation. This is to avoid any impartiality in their investigation,” Millarez said.
“The pronouncement of [Chief Inspector] Ines to the media stating [that] Monette Bernardo’s killing is not politically motivated and just an isolated incident is not appropriate and, to, me, is unprofessional,” he added.
His statement came after Ines said that the death of Monaliza “Monette” Bernardo is “an isolated incident, and not an election-related crime” as she was not a candidate in the previous two elections.
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“When I arrived early Saturday morning, March 23, 2019, I immediately went to the Loyola Memorial Chapel morgue to personally handle the preparation of Ms. Bernardo’s funeral wake. Since that time, no one from the Makati Police Station went to me for interview and get my side,” Millarez said.
“Late afternoon, yesterday, March 24, a police officer approached me and introduced himself as Major Gideon Ines. That was the only time I was able to talk to a Makati police officer. He gave me a copy of a Spot Investigation Report dated March 22, 2019 and said the case is for further investigation,” he added.
Millarez said that on Saturday evening, some of his friends showed him copies of newspapers articles which stated that the killing of Bernardo was not election-related.
Hence, he called on Ines and other authorities from the Makati police to stop issuing statements so as not to jeopardize the investigation.
“There are certain groups of people who are taking advantage of Major Ines’ statement,” he added. /gsg