6 ex-cops in Navotas teen’s slay surrender

Four of the six policemen charged in the killing of 17-year-old Jerhode “Jemboy” Baltazar listen to questions at the Senate.   —RICHARD A. REYES/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The six dismissed police officers implicated in the killing of 17-year-old Jerhode “Jemboy” Baltazar in an operation in August have yielded themselves to authorities in Quezon province, according to Maj. Gen. Romeo Caramat Jr., chief of the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG).

Caramat said Executive Master Sgt. Roberto Balais Jr.; Staff Sergeants Gerry Maliban, Antonio Bugayong Jr. and Nikko Pines Esquilon; Cpl. Edward Jake Blanco and Pat. Benedict Mangada “voluntarily surrendered” around 5 p.m. on Wednesday at CIDG Quezon Provincial Field Unit in Camp Guillermo Nakar, Lucena City.

The six cops, who were all formerly assigned to Navotas City Police Station, surrendered on the same day the Navotas Regional Trial Court (RTC) issued a warrant of arrest against them for murder.

Caramat said they underwent booking procedures and documentation. They would be detained at Camp Nakar until the court issues a commitment order for their transfer to a jail facility.

Nonbailable

In an order dated Oct. 3, Tuesday, but made public only on Wednesday, Navotas RTC Branch 286 Judge Pedro Dabu Jr. said the court found probable cause to issue a warrant of arrest against the six accused.

“Considering that the accused stand charged with murder, they are not entitled to bail as a matter of course,” the order stated.

In a press briefing in Camp Crame on Thursday, PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said the six former police officers chose to surrender at the CIDG in Quezon since one of them has a “close relative” working in the police unit.

“They were fetched somewhere in Parañaque City, because ever since their dismissal order was released, the PNP no longer has jurisdiction to hold them,” she explained.

They were initially booked for inquest proceedings for the bailable offense of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide. But Baltazar’s family and their lawyers insisted it should be a case of murder.

On Monday, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said Navotas prosecutors indicted the six for murder after evaluation.

“The accused conspiring, confederating and mutually helping one another did and there simultaneously and through [a] series of successive fires shot Jerhode Jemboy Baltazar, thereby inflicting gunshot wounds to the back of his head and to the dorsal portion of his hand,” the charge sheet read.

The prosecutor named seven witnesses against the six police officers, including forensic pathologist Raquel Fortun, who conducted an autopsy on Baltazar’s body.

On Aug. 2, Navotas police officers killed Baltazar while he and his friend were cleaning their fishing boat in a river near their home in Barangay NBBS Kaunlaran.