2 cops in killing of confessed child rapists charged with homicide

MANILA, Philippines—The Manila Police District filed homicide charges late Friday afternoon against two of its officers in connection with last Tuesday night’s killing of two confessed child rapists and killers who were detained in a cell at the Manila police headquarters on United Nations Avenue.

The MPD General Assignment Section (GAS), which had been tasked to investigate the shooting, filed two counts of homicide charges each against Senior Police Officer 1 Ramir Dimagiba and PO3 Rodel Benitez at the city prosecutor’s office for the deaths of  Roderick Soliveres, 28, and Cecilio Bacolo Jr, 19.

The officers claimed that the two inmates had tried to grab the gun of Dimagiba as they were about to empty their cell’s improvised urinal in the toilet as directed by the officer. In the ensuing scuffle, the weapon went off, hitting Bacolo in the chest.

It was at this point, according to the officers, that Benitez came to Dimagiba’s aid and shot Soliveres. Both detainees were pronounced dead on arrival at the Philippine General Hospital.

Soliveres and Bacolo had been arrested early last Saturday after they admitted raping and then strangling a 7-year-old girl in a friend’s room in Sta. Mesa.

An investigator of the MPD-GAS, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, told the Inquirer that the families of the slain detainees did not seem interested in pursuing the case against the two policemen.

“They told us they were busy and they could not go to the station to give their statements regarding the deaths,” the investigator said. “It seems they were not interested in pursuing the case.”

Nonetheless, the charges were filed at the prosecutors’ office even without any private complainants as homicide is a crime against the people, the investigator said.

Apart from the criminal complaint, the National Police Commission (Napolcom) has initiated an administrative case of negligence against the two policemen.