2 cops face murder raps in vice mayor ambush

LA UNION VIOLENCE Bullets pierced through the windshield of one of the cars used by Balaoan, La Union, Vice Mayor Al-Fred Concepcion and his daughter, Mayor Aleli Concepcion, when they were ambushed while on their way to the town hall on Nov. 14 last year. —PHOTO COURTESY OF BALAOAN PNP

MANILA, Philippines — Eight months after the murder of Vice Mayor Al-Fred Concepcion of Balaoan town in La Union, the National Bureau of Investigation has filed criminal charges against two gunmen who turned out to be active policemen in the province.

The conclusion of the monthlong probe led the NBI Ilocos regional office to file complaints of double murder and multiple counts of attempted murder against Police Master Sgt. Dario Cahigas and Police Senior Master Sgt. Arnald Calzado and several still unidentified suspects in the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The complaints were filed on July 30 but the NBI only told the media about it during a press briefing on Monday when the DOJ also started its preliminary investigation.

The next hearing is scheduled on Sept. 16.

According to the NBI regional director, Angelito Magno, Cahigas is assigned at the intelligence division of the La Union police while Calzado is assigned at the regional police office at Camp General Florendo in San Fernando City.

With the filing of criminal complaints, Magno said he hoped the Philippine National Police would file administrative charges against the two men that would lead to their dismissal.

On Nov. 14 last year, a convoy of Balaoan Mayor Aleli Concepcion and her father, the incumbent vice mayor, was on its way to the municipal hall when it was waylaid by a Toyota Innova van in front of Balaoan Central School at Barangay Cabua-an.

The gunmen, who were in another vehicle, a gray Toyota Rav 4, parked on the side of the road 5 meters from the convoy, and then opened fire on the victims.

Different story

The vice mayor and his bodyguard, Michael Ulep, died on the spot.

Mayor Concepcion was wounded along with eight others, including several bystanders.

Magno said the two accused police officers tried to deflect the investigation when they told a different story.

The two policemen, along with Police Chief Master Sergeant Villamor Laya—who was also assigned at the intelligence division of La Union police—said they were patrolling when they saw the Toyota Rav 4 in Barangay Nagsaag in San Juan town an hour after the ambush.

The suspected gunmen—which police initially claimed to be New People’s Army rebels—were transferring firearms to another vehicle when they were seen by policemen.

A shootout ensued but the police officers claimed they were outnumbered. The supposed gunfight ended with the wounding of Cahigas and Laya.

Laya, however, died four days after the attack.

DNA testing

Magno said they recovered a bloodied cap and face mask from the gunmen’s vehicle and got a court order to subject it to DNA testing.

“We discovered that the blood we recovered was confirmed to be from Laya, after it matched with the blood extracted from his father,” Magno said, adding that several witnesses also belied a second shootout had taken place.

On Monday, Mayor Concepcion called the involvement of police officers in her father’s murder as “disgusting and revulsive.”

“This is the highest of all treason,” she told reporters.

“That they who have sworn to uphold the law but have instead thwarted it and used it to their own advantage, attacking the very people whom they have sworn to protect, should enrage not just every [Balaoan resident] but every peace-loving Filipino,” she said.

She called her family’s fight for justice also as the “fight to save the very heart and soul of the country.”

She said: “For if our own police can use their guns and their authority to turn against duly elected officials that they want out of their way, then no citizen of Balaoan, no citizen of La Union, no citizen of the Philippines can ever feel safe again.”