DILG: Not enough evidence vs 3rd Dominguez brother

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said police crowd dispersal management units would exercise “maximum tolerance” during the Labor Day rallies.

MANILA, Philippines – There was still not enough evidence to link another Dominguez brother arrested recently to the cases of Raymond and Roger Dominguez nor to the killing of star witness Alfred Mendiola and two other men, Interior Secretary Jesse M. Robredo said Wednesday.

Bulacan policemen arrested Ryan Dominguez, 20, along with two other men, on Tuesday in Malolos, Bulacan,  for illegal possession of firearms, explosives and drugs.

“But he was not arrested because he is being accused of involvement in the killing of Mendiola and (Venson) Evangelista,” a car dealer allegedly killed in January 2011 by the group of Roger and Raymond.

Robredo, however, said that a ballistics analysis of the .45-cal pistol found in the possession of Ryan and his companions was being done to determine if this was the weapon used in the killing of Mendiola, whose testimony pinned down the older Dominguez brothers and helped put them behind bars.

Two M-16 rifles were also reportedly found in the group’s possession.

Mendiola and two others, Mark Herrera and Eriberto Jumaquio, were found dead, bound and gagged in Dasmariñas City in Cavite province on Sunday morning. The three victims each bore a gunshot in the head from a .45-cal. pistol.

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, and another car dealer, Emerson Lozano, in separate incidents in January 2011.

Senior Inspector Don Dixie De Dios, public information officer of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said cross-matching would be done on the evidence recovered from Ryan.

“The recovered items there will also be assessed and compared to those found on (Mendiola) to determine if there’s a connection, but we’re not immediately connecting the Ryan Dominguez case to his killing,” he said.

Lawyer Jose Cruz, counsel for Raymond, said the police might have placed Ryan under surveillance  because Raymond had been implicated in the murder of  Mendiola.

As this developed, the trial of Raymond’s other cases will soon be conducted inside the New Bilibid Prison.

This was confirmed Wednesday by Assistant City Prosecutor Ramoncito Ocampo Jr., a member of the prosecution panel.

“As a matter of policy, a convict, who is facing another case, cannot be brought out for hearings so we hold the hearings wherever he is detained,” Ocampo explained. With reports from Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon and Nancy Carvajal