Relatives seek inquiry into death of ex-PNP chief

Former PNP chief Gen. Camilo Cascolan (FILE PHOTO)

MANILA, Philippines — Relatives of the late Philippine National Police chief Gen. Camilo Pancratius Cascolan suspect he was a victim of “foul play,” adding that his wife should be considered a “person of interest” in his supposedly questionable death, one of his sisters said on Sunday.

Maita Cascolan Andres told the Inquirer in an interview that the family began to suspect that Cascolan’s wife, Amelia, was plotting against their brother when she prevented them from visiting him after he was diagnosed with lung cancer in March.

Andres, who is a lawyer, said the family also found it “weird” when Amelia decided to take him out of confinement at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City and bring him home to San Juan after the former PNP chief suffered a stroke three months later.

At the time, Cascolan was being given morphine and fentanyl by Amelia’s cousin, a certain Dr. Ranier Tanalgo, who was supposedly the “family doctor,” Andres added.

Determined to give their brother proper medical attention, Andres said they went to the National Bureau of Investigation in July to file a complaint against her sister-in-law. They also filed a separate guardianship petition before a court in San Juan two weeks before the former PNP chief died on Nov. 25.

‘Undeniable’

The 59-year-old Cascolan was known as one of the architects of the PNP’s “Oplan Double Barrel,” the blueprint of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war on drugs that claimed the lives of thousands of mostly poor drug suspects.

“My brother had wanted to live for another 20 years and we were determined to fight it out. He had many plans and wanted to accomplish other things,” Andres said.

“She (Amelia) wanted him home even against the advice of the doctors. She refused to let us see our brother….We just wanted [him] to get well and give him the opportunity to get through his condition,” she lamented.

Asked if the family believed that Amelia had something to do with her husband’s death, Andres replied: “Yes, at some point.”

“It’s undeniable that she’s a person of interest because of the incidents that happened before,” she said. “A lot of her actions do not jibe with normal or usual human experience. Filipino families usually seek out the help of one another. In her case, she wanted us out. We felt that something was really off.”

The Inquirer tried to get a comment from Amelia Cascolan’s lawyer, Sandra Coronel, but she had yet to respond as of this writing.

According to Andres, Cascolan had told one of their brothers he was being “poisoned” and that he could no longer trust his wife.

She added that they were also puzzled by the lack of improvement in his condition even after his oncologist gave him oral medication to ease his body pains.

The former PNP chief instead complained of being in constant pain since he started undergoing cancer treatment.

Cremated immediately

Andres said Cascolan’s condition improved only after he flew to Singapore for treatment. “His cancer actually receded….But then, he suffered a stroke,” she said.

Their suspicions grew after Amelia allegedly ordered her husband’s remains cremated just a few hours after he died in their home in San Juan.

This was despite the fact that she knew they had a court petition to allow his body to be autopsied first before cremation.

The NBI, Andres said, had also informed the funeral home contacted by Amelia of its ongoing investigation into Cascolan’s medical condition and his siblings’ request for an autopsy.

“Why did she want to cremate his body immediately if she has nothing to hide?” she asked. “We did not expect that she would do that.”

A death certificate signed by Police Lt. Col. Marianne Ebdane, the medicolegal officer of the Eastern Police District, showed that Cascolan died due to “pneumonia in the immunocompromised.”

But Andres and her siblings believed that their brother did not die of natural causes.

“We want to get to the bottom of this. It’s really painful that we were not able to see [my brother] before he died,” she said.