Cops in crime fighter’s slay seek CIDG jail

SAN PEDRO CITY—The two police officers tagged as the killers of anticrime crusader Zenaida Luz are asking a court to transfer their detention from a regular jail to a facility run by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Oriental Mindoro province.

In a phone interview on Sunday, Insp. Ruel Lito Fronda, police chief of Gloria town, said Senior Insp. Magdaleno Pimentel Jr. and Insp. Markson Almeranez, main suspects in the killing of Luz, filed a motion on court on Nov. 11 requesting that they be detained at the CIDG facility in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro.

The two said they are requesting for the transfer because the provincial jail, where they are currently detained, “is congested” and they “needed to recuperate” from wounds suffered during a clash with other policemen who had hunted them down following the killing of Luz.

Fronda said the two policemen also feared for their safety in a regular jail because “many of the inmates” had been sent to jail by the detained law enforcers.

Pimentel had been assigned to the provincial police’s Public Safety Company, while Almeranez had been police chief of Socorro town.

But Luz’s partner, Richard Albert, said he found the request questionable “considering what’s going on now with the CIDG.”

The CIDG, particularly members of its unit in Eastern Visayas, is embroiled in a controversy in relation to the killing of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. on Nov. 5.

A confessed drug trafficker detained at the provincial jail in Baybay, Leyte province, Espinosa was shot dead by CIDG operatives during the service of a warrant.

“CIDG is still police. We would rather see them in a facility where they cannot act tough (because of connections),” Albert said of the two policemen’s request.

On Oct. 9, Luz, head of the nongovernment Citizen’s Crime Watch in the Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan) region, was gunned down in front of her home in Gloria town.

Policemen of the town ran after the gunmen, who turned out to be Pimentel and Almeranez.

They were cornered in the town of Pinamalayan, where a gunfight between the two and Gloria policemen ensued.

Senior Supt. Christopher Birung on Sunday said doctors at the private Medical Mission Group hospital in Calapan City had already issued both policemen a discharge clearance, but they have not yet paid for their hospital bills.

Birung said Pimentel had been charged P200,000 while Almeranez owes the hospital P500,000. “I think their families are putting together that amount,” Birung said.

He said once discharged from the hospital, the two policemen would be brought straight to the Gloria municipal police station, unless the court orders their detention elsewhere.