It was murder, kin of slain men insist

Refusing to believe their loved ones’ deaths were not murder, the families of three men slain by police at the Ortigas Center six years ago have pressed the Ombudsman to investigate possible tampering of the documents in the case.

Through their lawyer, Jose Manuel Diokno, the families raised questions about the integrity of the preliminary investigation of the case against the police and cited a recent controversy over alleged manipulation of documents in the Office of the Ombudsman.

They also protested the downgrading of the charges against the police officers from murder to homicide, saying the video of the shooting taken by UNTV clearly showed the circumstances behind the three men’s deaths.

The video showed policemen shooting at close range Anton Cu-Unjieng, Francis Xavier Manzano and Brian Anthony Dulay even as they lay immobile in a car.

Police alleged the three had fired first at the law enforcers and were slain in a shootout. They claimed the men were members of a car-theft group.

But the families disputed this, saying the young men were victims of a rubout. They said the complete UNTV video showed the policemen waiting for the three men on Ortigas Avenue, firing at their vehicle, and shooting at them as they lay motionless.

Diokno told reporters the men’s families were prepared to challenge the Ombudsman’s ruling downgrading the charges to homicide before the Supreme Court.

But before that, they wanted to air their concerns to the Ombudsman.

In a letter to Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales dated November 29, Diokno, who represents Jennifer Manzano and Monique Cu-Unjieng la’O, raised concerns that the documents in the case may have been tampered with.

He noted that Overall Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro had earlier accused former Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon Mark Jalandoni of tampering with official documents in the Ombudsman’s possession.

Casimiro alleged that Jalandoni superimposed his own signatures on resolutions acted upon by Casimiro to make it appear that Jalandoni was the final approving authority. Doubts have been raised about the authenticity of the subsequent decisions because of this.

Given the circumstances, Diokno said he could not help but ask if the documents in this case were among those that were manipulated.

“Are the Resolution, Order and Information in this case among those allegedly falsified, tampered with, removed or concealed by Jalandoni?” he said, adding that if this were so, he wanted to know what had been done to rectify the situation.

The Office of the Ombudsman in 2009 ordered the filing of homicide charges against the PNP officers, which the victims’ families contested since they wanted murder charges filed.

In an order approved on July 11, 2011, the Ombudsman denied the families’ partial motion for reconsideration and ordered the filing of homicide charges against the police officers. The charges, dated Jan. 6, 2009, were filed on Oct. 10, 2011.

Diokno in his letter also questioned the downgrading of the charges against the policemen, the outright dismissal of charges against six of them, and the belated release of the July 11 order to file the cases in court, which he said was released only in September and which the complainants received in October.