DOJ sacks cops in Zambo safe house

ZAMBOANGA CITY—The Department of Justice (DOJ) has ordered the relief of all policemen assigned to its safe house here where a police officer went on a rampage, killing a fellow officer and a witness in a kidnapping case that involved policemen.

The order came as the city police and authorities said the two witnesses, who were supposedly under government protection, might not have been the targets of PO3 Carmelito Macansantos, who barged into the DOJ safe house and shot dead PO1 Tomas Dauba and witness Marvin Agullana.

“They were at the wrong place, at the wrong time,” said Ricardo Cabaron, chief DOJ prosecutor in Western Mindanao. PO1 Dauba and the witnesses were in the DOJ safe house preparing for a court hearing at the time of the attack.

The witnesses had given testimony linking policemen and several others to the kidnapping of a businessman here in January 2009 that ended in a successful rescue operation.

The assailant, Macansantos, turned out to be classmate of one of the policemen who was linked to the kidnapping, PO1 Alwin Abdua, according to Senior Supt. Edwin de Ocampo, acting city police chief.

“They both entered the police force in 1997,” said De Ocampo.

Macansantos is now in custody after he surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation here on Tuesday.

De Ocampo, however, said he sees no connection between the gun attack and the kidnapping case.

PO1 Abdua was charged along with several other persons, including lawyer Hasan Alam, with the January 2009 kidnapping of businessman Eliseo Hablo.

The witnesses, said De Ocampo, were not the targets of Macansantos.

Quoting investigators, De Ocampo said Macansantos and Dauba had a long-standing feud that could have prompted the attack.

“The target was Dauba. He nearly emptied the handgun’s load on Dauba. It so happened the two witnesses were there,” he said.

According to De Ocampo, one of the sources of friction between Macansantos and Dauba was security assignments.

“When they were once assigned together, they also had a tiff,” said De Ocampo.

Prosecutor Cabaron said while he, too, believed that the attack was directed mainly at Dauba, it was important to find out what really triggered Macansantos’ outburst.

“That rage could not be explained until now and we would rather have a deeper investigation,” said Cabaron. He said Macansantos should be subjected to psychiatric tests.

Cabaron said although prosecutors lost a witness, the case would proceed. He said Agullana, the slain witness, was “through with his testimony report.”

The kidnapping of Hablo ended in a rescue operation last February after which charges had been filed against several policemen and civilians.