Ortigas rubout: What went before

Francis Xavier Manzano, Anton Cu-Unjieng and Brian Anthony Dulay were killed in an alleged shoot-out with operatives of the national police Traffic Management Group (TMG) on Nov. 7, 2005, while inside a maroon Nissan Exalta.

Police said the firefight at the Ortigas Business District in Pasig City took place when the three refused to stop at a checkpoint and opened fire on lawmen. TMG officials claimed the three were suspected members of the Valle Verde car theft gang who had been under surveillance for a week.

The incident was caught on video by UNTV and shown on national television, prompting relatives of the victims to claim that what happened was 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.

The Office of the Ombudsman in 2009 ordered the filing of homicide charges against the police officers which was opposed by the victims’ families since they wanted the accused charged with murder.

The policemen initially charged in the case included Chief Supt. Augusto Angcanan Jr.; Senior Inspectors Hansel Marantan, Samson Belmonte, and Henry Cerdon; PO3s Rizalito Ramos Jr. and Lloyd Soria; PO2s Jesus Fermin, Dexter Bernadas, and Sonny Robrigado; and PO1s Fernando Ray Gapuz and Josil Rey Luceña.

The Commission on Human Rights earlier recommended that 10 Task Force Limbas members be charged with multiple murder but in a 16-page resolution, the Office of the Ombudsman said “the evidence on record failed to show that the respondents employed (treachery) to qualify the crime of murder.”

In September 2009, Monique Cu-Unjieng La’O and Carmencita Cu-Unjieng, mother and grandmother of Anton, filed an omnibus motion before the Ombudsman asking it to reconsider its resolution clearing the policemen of any administrative liability and charging only five of them with homicide.

But 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. Inquirer Research

Source: Inquirer Archives