Slain state witness slipped from safe house twice
Despite threats to his life, state witness Alfred Mendiola had apparently slipped away from government custody at least twice.
His last “escapade” was an outing with the family of his boyfriend last week, according to sources.
An informant, who requested anonymity, said the star witness against the Dominguez car theft gang went on a trip but without his guards from the Witness Protection Program (WPP).
Mendiola went out to meet with his boyfriend and the latter’s family to go on an out-of-town trip.
The group reportedly visited different places such as Malolos and Plaridel towns in Bulacan province and Orani, Bataan province.
The source said Mendiola and the others went swimming during their outing last week.
Another informant said the group even rented vehicles for their trip. But on Friday, the WPP reportedly lost contact with Mendiola.
He had been in government custody since last year after being admitted as a state witness in the car theft with homicide case against Roger and Raymond Dominguez.
The Dominguez brothers, alleged leaders of a car theft group, are accused of abducting and killing car dealer Venson Evangelista on Jan. 13, 2011.
The victim’s father, Arsenio Evangelista, said Mendiola had slipped away from his WPP guards last year at a Quezon City fast food restaurant.
The witness escaped through the restaurant’s rest room and returned to government custody a few days later.
“As far as I know, this would be the second time he went out without guards,” the informant said in an interview on Monday.
The “second time” would turn out to be the last as Mendiola, along with two others, were found dead in Barangay (village) Salawag in Dasmariñas City in Cavite.
His two companions turned out to be his reported boyfriend, Dave, and the latter’s uncle Mark Angelo Herrera.
The bodies were found gagged with masking tape and hogtied with cable wire shortly before 7 a.m. on Sunday, all with gunshot wounds in the head.
Mendiola claimed to have been recruited into the car theft gang and pointed to the Dominguez brothers as the alleged masterminds in Venson’s abduction and brutal death.
The star witness said he had posed as the buyer of the Toyota Land Cruiser that Venson was selling when the victim was kidnapped on January 13 last year.
Upon learning of Mendiola’s death on Sunday, Arsenio was shaken not only at the loss but for his own safety as well. “It seems those behind my son’s death still exert influence,” he said.
Strong case
But even with the loss of the prosecution’s star witness, Arsenio and assistant city prosecutor Ramoncito Ocampo Jr. believes they still had a strong case against the Dominguezes.
Ocampo noted that Mendiola had already testified on events related to Venson’s death and the theft of the Land Cruiser.
“We’ve covered a lot of aspects already and Mendiola had been cross-examined as well,” the prosecutor said of the late witness’ testimony.
Mendiola was presented in court first as an accused but he was later removed from the charge sheet and deemed as a state witness.
Ocampo said Mendiola’s testimony would be adopted as part of the “evidence-in-chief” in the main trial.
“As a prosecutor, we still have a strong case against the suspects. His testimony is sufficient to establish the guilt of the accused,” he said.
Arsenio said the WPP should have taken extra measures to protect a “high-risk witness” like Mendiola.
A close friend of Mendiola’s wondered whether the witness was “salvaged.”
“Since 5 a.m. on Sunday when I got the news [over television], I’ve been asking why Borgie (Mendiola), who’s under government protection, was salvaged, [and] silenced,” Fr. Manuel Sta. Maria said in a text message to the Inquirer from Pampanga where he is based.
Mendiola, an adopted son of an old couple in Angeles City, served as an altar boy at the Holy Rosary Parish where Father Sta. Maria was assigned in 1993. Mendiola’s mother resides in the United States.
At the Bulacan provincial jail in the City of Malolos where Mendiola had been initially detained, his former jailers said the 24-year-old state witness could have been alive had he stayed there instead of at the Department of Justice (DoJ) safe house to which he was entitled while under the WPP.
The siblings’ lawyer, however, said one of his clients was also under threat.
In March, Raymond survived an attack in Manila while he was being escorted by jail guards back to the Bulacan jail after undergoing trial in a Quezon City court.
A month later, he was sentenced by a Bulacan court to 17- to 30-year imprisonment for car theft in Marilao town. He has since been detained at the maximum security compound of the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa City.
Trial in Muntinlupa
Because of security concerns, the Bulacan courts have decided to hold the other trials at the prison house in Muntinlupa City, to reduce the risk because the suspect has to travel four hours to meet his Bulacan court room schedules, said Jose Cruz, counsel for the Dominguez brothers.
Raymond is facing 10 other car theft cases in different courts in Metro Manila, Bulacan and Pampanga.
Mendiola drew attention last year when he left the DoJ custody without permission to relocate to the Bulacan provincial jail, arguing it was closer to his family in Pampanga.
He left the Bulacan jail in March when he was dropped from the prosecutor’s list of suspects in the Evangelista murder case.
Pepito Plamenco, Bulacan provincial jail warden, said Mendiola was first jailed at the Bulacan facility in 2005 while he was on trial for a P10,000-estafa charge. Mendiola later testified that the Dominguez brothers recruited him at the provincial jail in 2010.
Mendiola was among the accused in the Evangelista case. Since March, however, Mendiola had been a DoJ ward, Plamenco said. “He was discharged as one of the accused [in the case against the Dominguez brothers] and was recognized as a state witness so I turned him over to the DoJ,” the jail official said.
He said he was informed by a DoJ official that Mendiola had signed a waiver that allowed him to leave the DoJ custody at will. He said Mendiola could not do that under his watch.
The slain witness worked as an assistant at the warden’s office, and was allowed to sleep in the warden’s quarters, Plamenco said, because of threats to his life.
He spoke of an incident last year when improvised explosives were sneaked into the jail through a side window. The explosives were discovered, and the plot to harm Mendiola was foiled, the warden said.
