MANILA, Philippines — Police officers will also look into the old case files of other Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) officials who were murdered to see if these are in any way connected to the murder of BuCor legal service chief Fredric Santos.
“Pinapakuha ko lahat yung mga investigation reports. So ang huling period na tiningnan namin is 2015 to present. Nagbabacktrack sila, may nakuhang dalawa noong 2013,” Muntinlupa police chief Col. Hermogenes Cabe told reporters Thursday.
(I have ordered the recovery of all the investigation reports. We uncovered cases from 2015 to present. We are still backtracking and we also found two more cases in 2013.)
Cabe said police will try to uncover cases about the murder of BuCor officials which will help them check any similar angles behind the killing of the victims.
Santos was gunned down on Wednesday afternoon while he was about to fetch his daughter along Katihan Street in Barangay Poblacion, Muntinlupa City.
Prior to Santos’ killing, five other BuCor officers were killed in Barangay Poblacion from December 2018 to November 2019:
- On Dec. 3, 2018, Chief Insp. Angelito Padilla was shot in the head by two gunmen along Katihan Road.
- On Aug. 8, 2019, Ruperto Traya Jr., chief administrator 3, was shot by motorcycle-riding assailants on Amparo Street along Barangay Poblacion.
- On Sept. 2, Insp. Rommel Reyes was gunned down by a still unidentified gunman along New Bilibid Prison (NBP) Road inside the NBP Reservation.
- A month later, Insp. Nimencio San Gabriel, who was on board his motorcycle, was shot by motorcycle-riding suspects in Katarungan Village.
- On Nov. 27, 38-year-old Corrections Officer 1 Porferio Bergula was buying fish when an unknown gunman shot him at his chest.
Cabe said he has yet to confirm whether the cases were resolved as they have just started recovering the old cases.
Earlier, Senator Richard Gordon, whose committee on justice heard the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) controversy involving BuCor officials, first broached the idea that investigators should look into the deaths of other bureau officials.
“Ang dapat tignang mabuti ng NBI ay lahat nung nahawakan diyan… sa Bureau of Corrections sapagkat laging may namamatay (What the NBI should look into are those at the BuCor who have been involved in the irregularities, because of these deaths),” the senator went on.