Mauled detainee was ‘kicked in the chest with combat boots’

Joven Tejano was kicked in the chest as he was interrogated last July 7 in the Fuente police station about a house robbery.

He fell off his chair, while his interrogator, an anti-crime volunteer wearing combat boots, continued to kick him.

This was the sworn account of a member of the Trackers about the fatal mauling of Tejano, a theft suspect, whose death has triggered an investigation into abusive conduct of civilian assets and police brutality.

A complaint for murder was filed yesterday against Pedro Piañar Jr., 40, a member of the Trackers, who disappeared after Tejano was found unconscious in his cell in the Fuente police station.

Tejano died shortly after in a hospital. An autopsy said he sustained severe injuries, including 15 broken ribs, and signs of physical trauma all over his body.

The complaint was supported by affidavits of two Trackers members.

In his affidavit, Edward Pamplona said Tejano was arrested by Rafael Enriquez, a Tracker member, last July 7 and placed in the detention cell of the Fuente police station.

Later on, Tejano was taken out for interrogation in the Tracker’s Office in the precinct.

It was Piañar who allegedly confronted the detainee and asked if he was the man caught by a security camera barging into a house in sitio Sapda.

Tejano said no.

Pamplona said Piañar then kicked the chest of the suspect, who fell off his chair as Piañar continued to kick him.

Pamplona said he and fellow Tracker Rodulfo Bohol tried to persuade Piañar to stop the beating but he ignored them. After the mauling, the suspect was returned to his cell. Bohol also executed an affidavit about the beating.

Both witnesses said Pianar is a taekwondo expert and a former military.

Chief Insp. Michael Anthony Bastes, who was relieved as chief of the Fuente police over the detainee’s death, said he was off duty at the time and not responsible for what happened.

In his affidavit to police investigators, Bastes said, “There is no iota of evidence that I am negligent, remiss in my duty or connived for the untimely death of said detainee.”

Bastes said shift supervisors were overseeing the station at the time of the mauling.    WITH CORRESPONDENT CHITO O. ARAGON