NBI appeals DOJ’s dismissal of raps against 3 policemen
The National Bureau of Investigation has asked the Department of Justice to reconsider its resolution which cleared of murder charges three policemen accused of killing a Quezon City prosecutor last year.
In a 14-page motion for reconsideration, the NBI argued that the determination of sufficient evidence to convict Pat. Jose Lunar Mercado, Senior Master Sgt. Rodante Lalimarmo and Staff Sgt. Arthur Lucy should be done during a full-blown trial, not during the preliminary investigation.
“The investigating prosecutor does not determine the guilt or innocence of an accused. It merely requires that a probability exists that the crime has been committed,” it said.
Mercado, Lalimarmo and Lucy were charged with conspiring to kill in an ambush former Quezon City Prosecutor Rogelio Velasco on May 11, 2018.
He was the second city prosecutor killed since Johanne Noel Mingoa who was ambushed in January 2017.
Inadmissible, untrue
In his resolution dismissing the NBI complaint, Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong described the bureau’s crucial evidence and testimonies as “inadmissible, unbelievable, untrue and contradictory.”
The NBI had based its case against the policemen on closed circuit television (CCTV) camera footage taken at the Quezon Memorial Circle parking lot, the supposed staging area for the ambush.
The NBI also relied on witnesses’ testimonies that Mercado was seen having an argument with Velasco in his office before the ambush.
But Ong said the prosecution witnesses’ testimonies appeared “unbelievable, if not coached” while the CCTV camera footage was meant only to bolster the NBI’s theory of animosity between Mercado and the victim.
