2 Laguna cops in kidnapping, murder didn’t turn over guns

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna—The two San Pedro, Laguna, policemen linked to the kidnapping and murder of Chinese-Filipino trader Lea Angeles Ng have gone into hiding with their service firearms, according to a top Laguna police officer.

Senior Supt. Gilbert Cruz, the Laguna police chief, said a manhunt could not be launched for the two policemen, however, as no arrest order or warrant has yet been issued against them either by the Department of Justice (DOJ) or any court.

Cruz said he has issued an order to PO1 Otelio Santos Jr. and PO1 Jifford Singap to return to work. The written order was delivered to their home addresses but there has been no response, according to Cruz.

Santos, a resident of Marikina City, and Singap, from Tondo, Manila, face criminal and administrative charges along with alleged mastermind, Supt. Rommel S. Miranda, the recently relieved deputy chief of the Communications and Electronics Service of the Central Visayas police, for the kidnapping and murder of Ng on Jan. 20.

Cruz said Santos and Singap went on awol immediately after the body of Ng was found in a septic tank of an abandoned warehouse in Laguna on Feb. 23.

It was after they disappeared that police discovered that they had also taken their service firearms with them, said Cruz. PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz, in a phone interview on Thursday, said the antikidnapping group had filed charges against the three policemen at the DOJ.

Arrested suspect Reginel Santiago, a former policeman, tagged the three as involved in the crime. He claimed Ng was allegedly killed by Miranda following a dispute over a P13-million debt collection.

According to the PNP spokesperson, Miranda was ordered transferred to another unit in the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame to make sure he would be present during investigation.

But as of Thursday, Miranda has yet to report to the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (DIDM) in Camp Crame, the unit handling the administrative charges, since his case was still being evaluated, according to SPO1 Allan Brotamonte from the DIDM.

The Inquirer tried to reach Santos and Signap on their mobile phones, but both their numbers, provided by the Laguna police, were no longer in service.