Aquino vows to hold liable cops involved in Ozamiz gang leaders’ killing

Ozamiz rob gang leader Rick Cadavero with his police escorts just hours before he was killed allegedly in an ambush Monday night in San Pedro, Laguna. INQUIRER/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III on Monday vowed to hold liable any police officials and other people involved in the killings of Ozamiz robbery gang leaders Ricky Cadavero and Wilfredo Panogalinga Jr.

“Tulad ng ginawa naming imbestigasyon sa nangyari sa Atimonan, sisiguruhin nating mananagot ang sino mang pulis o sino mang sangkot dito gaano man kataas ang kanilang ranggo (Like the investigation we conducted in the Atimonan incident, we will make sure that any police or anyone involved here however high his rank is will be held responsible),” Aquino said during his fourth State of the Nation Address.

“Kung sino man ang mga pasimuno dito, maghanda ng kayo. Malapit ko na kayong makilalang lahat (Whoever masterminded this, beware. Soon your names will be bared),” said the President.

Cadavero and Panogalinga escaped from prison in 2012, and were recaptured in a safe house in Dasmariñas, Cavite, on Friday. Illegal weapons and explosives charges were filed against them.

Their police escorts were supposed to turn them over to the Bureau of Corrections for incarceration at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City after a news conference at PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

But the officers did not turn over the two men to the prisons bureau.  In front of the bureau’s offices, they changed vehicles and drove to their camp in Dasmariñas, supposedly to put the two men through a police inquest.

The vehicle carrying Cadavero and Panogalinga took a long route via Laguna province, where, in San Pedro town, motorcycling gunmen allegedly ambushed the police vehicle in an attempt to spring the two men.

While the policemen were busy fighting off the attackers, the Calabarzon police said, the two men tried to grab their police escorts’ sidearms and were shot dead by the officers. With a report from Philippine Daily Inquirer