NBI to probe slay of former Batangas rep

TORCHED The car containing the bodies of former Batangas Rep. Edgar Mendoza and two other people was still in flames when
the police found it on a bridge at Barangay San Francisco in Tiaong, Quezon. —PHOTO COURTESY OF QUEZON PROVINCIAL POLICE

Department of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has directed the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct a probe and case buildup on the recent killing of former Batangas Rep. Edgar Mendoza and two others.

Guevarra’s instruction was contained in Department Order No. 012 dated Jan. 9 and addressed to NBI director Dante Gierran, a copy of which was released to the media on Friday.

“The NBI is hereby directed and granted authority to conduct an investigation and case buildup on the apparent murder[s], and, if evidence warrants, to file the appropriate charges against persons found responsible,” the secretary said.

Gierran was also instructed to submit reports on the progress of the investigation and case buildup directly to the secretary’s office within 30 days.

The family of Mendoza believed the attack on him had something to do with his practice as a lawyer.

Mendoza, who was supposed to celebrate his 70th birthday on Jan.15, was believed to have died along with two others—his car abandoned and set on fire in a remote village in Tiaong, Quezon, about 50 kilometers away from his residence in Batangas City, Batangas.

Police and his family have identified Mendoza through his vehicle’s registration and an identification card recovered as the one of the three persons, whose bodies were found inside the car burned beyond recognition.

The other two could be Mendoza’s driver, Ruel Ruiz, and bodyguard, Nicanor Mendoza, who were last seen with him when he left Batangas supposedly for a client meeting in Calamba City, Laguna, on Wednesday.

Peers in the local politics clung to the slightest possibility he was still alive, as police have yet to conclude the DNA tests done on the bodies.

“I guess it hasn’t sunk in yet,” said Mendoza’s younger brother and also a lawyer, Jun Mendoza, in a phone interview on Friday.

Land dispute

Jun said his brother was “semiretired” and had delegated running his law firm in Batangas City to his son and lawyer, Edgar Carlos Jr., with Mendoza “only supervising” some cases.

A police source in Batangas, who has knowledge in the ongoing investigation, said among the recent cases that Mendoza was handling involved a property dispute in Quezon province.

The source declined to discuss further or say if it were the same case Mendoza’s supposed Calamba meeting was about.

Jun also did not comment on the land dispute case.

Police have ruled out politics as a possible motive behind Mendoza’s slay.

Cpl. Joe Roderick Manzano, the Tiaong police investigator, said they were eyeing other possible motives like “family business and other profession-related angles.”

“That’s why the victim and his companions were not carrying guns, according to the family,” Manzano said in an interview at Tiaong on Friday morning.

But one thing sure about the grisly murders was that whoever brought the car of the victims to the crime scene fully know the area, according to local residents.