Car theft gang eyed in killing of key witness

Raymond Dominguez. INQUIRER file photo

Members of the car theft syndicate reportedly led by the Domiguez brothers are the prime suspects in the killing of Alfred Mendiola, a key witness in a government case against the notorious siblings, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Monday.

De Lima said that Mendiola had avoided the security escorts the government Witness Protection Program (WPP) had wanted to provide him and that he had not informed his handlers where he was going when he last left his safe house.

“His testimony was very important and he was really able to pin down the Domiguez brothers. So, under these circumstances, we can really say that, as of this moment, the syndicate is the No. 1 suspect,” De Lima told reporters.

Mendiola and two other men were found dead, bound and gagged in Dasmariñas City in Cavite province on Sunday morning. The three victims each had a gunshot in the head from a .45-cal. pistol.

Mendiola, formerly an accused in the death of car dealer Venson Evangelista, turned state witness last year against brothers Roger and Raymond Domiguez.

The Dominguez brothers, alleged leaders of a car theft syndicate based in Bulacan province, are facing car theft with homicide charges for the killing of Evangelista in January 2011.

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said he was convinced that the Dominguez syndicate was behind the summary execution of Mendiola.

“I believe that the remnants of the Dominguez car [theft] group killed

Mendiola. The group’s leaders, the brothers Roger and Raymond Dominguez, have the strongest motives to do him harm because of his testimony about the Venson Evangelista murder case,” Robredo said.

Robredo said other witnesses in the car theft cases against the Dominguez brothers should “take extra precaution and seek police protection if necessary” to avoid Mendiola’s fate.

De Lima had already asked the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate the killing of Mendiola and his two companions.

“He already finished giving his testimony. During the bail hearings, he already testified on direct testimony and he was already cross-examined.  There’s no problem there,” De Lima said.

She said Mendiola “did not want a safe house” and instead asked the WPP that he be given a place in Angeles, Pampanga province.

“But we told him that we couldn’t do that because that is too near Bulacan. We didn’t want him to stay anywhere in Bulacan or anywhere near Bulacan,” De Lima said.

“That is the area more or less of that syndicate… the Dominguez brothers [and] he did not want to be provided with round-the-clock security,” she added.

De Lima said the WPP eventually resettled Mendiola in a place “not near Bulacan” on the condition that he inform his handlers whenever he left the place.

“He had no security because he waived it on the condition that he would inform (his handlers) when he would leave because, if we saw that his trip was dangerous, we would not allow him to leave or we would give him escorts,” De Lima said.

“But apparently, he would go out without informing them and he did that often,” she said. “So here, he did not ask for permission to leave and then we learned subsequently that he was already dead, that he was killed, and that he had gone to Bulacan and then to Cavite.”

De Lima said that Mendiola was supposed to be summoned to the Department of Justice Monday to inform him that the government was terminating his WPP coverage for violations of terms and conditions he agreed to when he joined the program.

Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina, director of the Highway Patrol Group, said the father of Venson Evangelista showed him a text message from Mendiola last Thursday talking about “protectors in uniform” of the Dominguez group.

Espina said the text message read, “Good am. Mukhang kumikilos na ang protectors in uniform ng Dominguez.”

Mendiola left his guards in the WPP on Friday.

“We will pursue this angle closely so that we can get to the bottom of the case,” Espina told reporters.