SC affirms Jaylo conviction for 1990 ‘shootout’

MANILA, Philippines–The Supreme Court has affirmed the homicide conviction of former police officer Reynaldo Jaylo and two others for the death of two soldiers and a civilian in a Makati City drug-bust operation 25 years ago.

The high court’s First Division, in a ruling dated Jan. 21 and released last week, dismissed the petition for certiorari filed by Jaylo, William Valenzona and Antonio Habalo questioning the April 2007 Sandiganbayan verdict that found them guilty and sent them to up to 14 years in prison.

The decision, written by Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, said the failure of the three men to appear in court when the verdict was read meant that they could no longer avail themselves of remedies such as motions for reconsideration or retrial, or appeal to the higher court. The other division members, Presbitero Velasco Jr., Lucas Bersamin, Jose Perez and Estela Perlas-Bernabe concurred in the ruling.

The case against Jaylo, Valenzona and Habalo stemmed from the operation they conducted in July 1990 when they were still with the Manila police and on special detail with the National Bureau of Investigation. A fourth accused, police officer Edgardo Castro, died in 2006.

Jaylo was assigned by then NBI Director Alfredo Lim to lead the team that would buy 10 kilos of heroin from drug traders. An undercover agent of the US Drug Enforcement Administration helped in the operation by posing as the buyer.

The alleged drug trader, Franco Calanog, together with two supposed bodyguards, Army Maj. Avelino Manguerra and Col. Rolando de Guzman, arrived in two cars. According to the prosecution, Jaylo and his men arrested the suspects, disarmed them and then shot them dead.

But the defense claimed that other suspects on board a third car appeared and that Calanog, Manguerra and De Guzman resisted arrest and shot it out with the lawmen. The policemen said they killed the victims in self-defense and in the line of duty.

Then President Cory Aquino created a fact-finding committee headed by then presidential assistant for legal affairs Magdangal Elma to investigate the shootout. The panel recommended the prosecution of the policemen, who were charged with murder in the Sandiganbayan in 1992.

The court convicted the three for a lighter offense of homicide, citing the prosecution’s failure to prove conspiracy and other elements of murder.

Jaylo’s current whereabouts were not immediately established. He was appointed director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in 2003 and then head of the Presidential Anti-Illegal Recruitment Task Force in 2004.