Police downplay Ramgen suspect’s statements

The Parañaque City Police on Monday urged one of the seven suspects in the Ramgen Bautista case to put all her statements into writing and to attest to their truthfulness instead of just rattling off the names of those allegedly involved in the killing in news interviews.

Senior Superintendent Billy Beltran, city police chief, told the Inquirer Monday that he had advised Glaiza Visda to issue a sworn statement to the police or before the city prosecutor.

This was after Visda revealed the involvement of another of Bautista’s younger siblings in his death.

Earlier, a witness and two suspects pointed to Ramon Joseph “RJ” and Ma. Ramona “Mara” as the ones who masterminded their older brother’s death. This was denied, however, by Visda.

Bautista was shot and stabbed to death inside the family’s house at BF Homes Parañaque on October 28.

“She [Visda] remains a suspect. If she wants to offer information, then she has to put that in writing in the form of an affidavit. But we will treat that as her defense,” Beltran said, adding that it was normal for suspects to drop names to draw attention away from them.

Asked if the police were able to talk to Visda, Beltran told the Inquirer that there was no attempt on their part to talk to Visda outside the courtroom which, according to him, is the proper forum.

He said that they were waiting for her to submit her counter-affidavit before the City Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday. “We will know [then] if we have to investigate more personalities who are possibly linked to the murder,” Beltran added.

In a television interview over the weekend, Visda said that she knew every detail of the plan to murder Bautista.

According to her, RJ was not the mastermind. It was another of Bautista’s younger sisters who had ordered one of the suspects, Bryan or Ryan Pastera, to find a hired killer to murder her brother, Visda added.

Visda is among seven accused, including Pastera, RJ, Mara, Norwin de la Cruz, Roy Francis Tolisora and Michael Jay Nartea, charged before the Parañaque City Regional Trial Court Branch 274 with murder in connection with Bautista’s death and frustrated murder for the attack on the victim’s girlfriend, Janelle Manahan, which left her injured.