CCTVs can’t identify BuCor exec’s killers
Credit to Author: Jan Arcilla| Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2020 16:11:04 +0000
Surveillance cameras near where a Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) officer was gunned down on Wednesday were defective, making it difficult to identify his killers, police said on Thursday.
Fredric Anthony Santos, BuCor legal division chief, was fatally shot at close range inside his car by at least two men as he waited for his daughter to come out of the Southernside Montessori School in Muntinlupa City.
In an interview with reporters, Muntinlupa City police chief Col. Hermogenes Cabe said three closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in the area were not working while the dashcam of Santos’ car was “overloaded.”
He added, however, that investigators would find out if other CCTVs captured the incident.
Cabe said a joint special investigation task group from the police and BuCor would look into the case.
Santos testified last year at the Senate inquiry into the controversial issuance of the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) authorizing the release of 11,000 prisoners.
Ombudsman Samuel Martires last September suspended Santos for six months while the issue was being investigated. He was to return to work on March 12.
Santos was the second BuCor official to be killed since Director General Gerald Bantag assumed office in September.
On Thursday, Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa said drug lords inside the New Bilibid Prison could be behind the killing of Santos,
“Based on my experience, ‘yung mga nagpapatay sa mga tao natin d’yan sa BuCor, ‘yan rin ‘yung mga nakakulong na drug lords (Based on my experience, the people behind the killings of BuCor officials were jailed drug lords),” he told reporters in a chance interview.
Dela Rosa became head of BuCor after his stint as the Philippine National Police chief.
He claimed that drug lords have many connections outside the national penitentiary.
“Marami pa rin pera, marami pa rin galamay ‘yan sa labas na pwede ka ipapatay (They still have a lot of money, many connections that could be ordered to kill you),” dela Rosa said.
They were even threatening judges and prosecutors, and were involved in the killings of the lawyers, he added.
The detained narcotics traffickers “have the money. They can buy your life anytime,” the senator said.
But Cabe said it was too early to link the killing of Santos to the GCTA controversy.
“Mahirap sabihin ‘yan ngayon kung totoo ‘yan…kasi on going pa nga ‘yung investigation.
That is why we are really pushing [that] the investigation should be done by both the Muntinlupa police and BuCor,” he added.
Also on Thursday, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra directed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to look into the killing of Santos.
Guevarra ordered NBI Director Dante Gierran to report on the progress of the case within 30 days.
The Department of Justice suspended the issuance of GCTAs after it was revealed that former Calauan, Laguna mayor Antonio Sanchez was among the prisoners scheduled for release.
Sanchez was sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape and killing of University of the Philippines student Aileen Sarmenta and the killing of her boyfriend, Allan Gomez, in 1993.
WITH DARWIN PESCO AND JOMAR CANLAS