Cop grilled for dropping key testimony in case vs fellow officer

Inquirer file photo

MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker scolded a member of the Batangas Provincial Police Office (Batangas PPO) after key portions of a complainant’s testimony were dropped in the complaint filed against their fellow police officer.

During the hearing of the House committee on public order and safety on Monday, chairperson and Santa Rosa City Rep. Dan Fernandez took notice of a journalist’s statement that parts of an affidavit signed by Adrian Laresma, brother of Bryan Laresma who was killed in a San Juan, Batangas police operation, were not included in the complaints submitted by police.

The complaints were supposedly provided by the Batangas Provincial Internal Affairs Service (PIAS) against the police officers who conducted the anti-drug operation against Bryan Laresma, near the boundary of San Juan and Tiaong, Quezon province.

READ: Alleged drug pusher slain in Batangas buy-bust

“What happened is that the affidavit, the affidavit that the police submitted did not include parts of Adrian’s story.  Because the witness was mentioning details but the police said they have enough information already. So of course they thought they were being assisted but in truth, it made their case weak since certain points—the important ones—were not included,” local reporter Jenny Glifonea said.

Redacted evidence

“So for example Jenny, what pieces of evidence were redacted from the affidavit that Adrian intended to submit, those that were not included by the police investigators?” Fernandez asked.

“Like the gun pointing incident at the bridge,” Glifonea replied.

According to Adrian Laresma, he was supposed to meet with his brother Bryan near the San Juan-Tiaong bridge when he saw a police officer—later revealed to be Police Sgt. Michie Perez—shooting Bryan at the hip.

Adrian claims that Bryan was unarmed and was not involved in the illegal trade, but Perez testified several times before the committee that Bryan opened fire first, shooting her at least two times. Adrian also said that Perez pointed a gun at him, telling him to leave the place—a detail not included in the affidavit.

Perez was one of the officers who faced the complaint from the PIAS.

When Fernandez turned to the police officers who prepared the case—particularly Police Col. Ruel Lito Fronda, former Provincial Investigation Detective Unit head of Batangas PPO—they maintained that Adrian’s testimony was included as a supplemental affidavit.

Updated only later

However, Fernandez also took notice that the affidavit was only updated when Adrian was already talking with a prosecutor privately—meaning, Glifonea’s narration about the gun-pointing incident being dropped was true.

“If that is true that it was removed from the evidence, that it was placed in Adrian’s affidavit and it was not included in the filing of that case, then there is something sinister on this, because I think that will make the case much weaker and subject to dismissal […] Col. (Ruel Lito) Fronda, is this true that you removed something from his affidavit?” Fernandez said.

“That’s not true because their statement was obtained by the PIAS, and it went through the proper process […]  They (witness and prosecutor) talked about it, we were totally barred by the fiscal from entering and we were asked to discuss the case separately, so we can say that there was no deletion from the statement,” Fronda replied

“So (this) is the theme of the affidavit,” Fernandez said after reading two versions.  “And it was not mentioned that a gun was pointed.  But in Adrian’s affidavit, he said […] ‘a gun was pointed against me by Sgt. Michie Perez and she forcibly led me away from the scene and said ‘leave this place or I will shoot you’,” Fernandez replied.

Aside from these issues, Glifonea also claimed that they went to the National Police Commission (Napolcom) so that they could get assisted in the filing of the complaint, but they were shocked to know that the PIAS knew of their visit — with PIAS noting that they have already begun a motu proprio investigation on the issue.

Brian Laresma, believed to go by the alias Balut, was killed in an encounter with San Juan police officers after he allegedly opened fire on Perez, supposedly after sensing that he was dealing with an undercover cop.

However, the encounter is being investigated as the police officers who carried out the operation did it outside of their supervision. —with reports from Felice Nafarrete, trainee