Calabarzon regional police director Chief Supt. Edward “Ted” Carranza on Monday invited the families of Richard Santillan, the slain aide of former Biliran Rep. Glenn Chong, and Gessamyn Casing to “participate in the investigation” being conducted by their Regional Internal Affairs Service 4A unit.
This was after Jeanette Santillan, widow of Chong’s aide Richard Santillan, formally asked the Department of Justice last week to direct the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct a parallel investigation on the circumstances surrounding the killing of her husband.
Santillan was killed along with Casing in an alleged shootout with police officers in Cainta, Rizal on Dec. 10, but his vehicle was riddled with 30 bullet holes.
President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday ordered a probe on the killing of Santillan and Casing and “denounced the brutal and brazen incident,” according to Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo.
In the wake of the incident, Carranza sacked Senior Supt. Lou Evangelista as provincial director of Rizal and Supt. Pablito Naganag as chief of police of Cainta. Also dismissed were 10 members of the Calabarzon RIAS group and four Cainta policemen.
Carranza said the Police Regional Office 4-A’s IAS “is an independent investigating body which has the motu proprio power to determine if there were violations committed during the incident by our operatives.”
The regional internal affairs police, he said, “is currently in the process of summary dismissal proceedings, identifying liabilities and determining the pieces of evidence that will warrant the filing of criminal or administrative charges, if proven that there was indeed negligence on the part of our policemen.”
“In the spirit of transparency and cooperation, I encourage their families to join us,” Carranza added.
Jeanette Santillan said she wanted to file charges against the policemen under Carranza after submitting her letter to the DOJ.
The widow said she does not believe in the findings of the Philippine National Police that her husband was killed after figuring in an “encounter” with policemen who were looking for a carnapped vehicle.
“The police conducted the autopsy without our consent and knowledge. We learned about it only after 16 hours,” she said.
In her request, the widow specifically asked the NBI to take custody of the evidence from the PNP, including Chong’s vehicle which was equipped with a dashboard camera and Santillan’s belongings.
She sought forensic examinations of the evidence as well as full reconstruction of the incidents leading to the killing.
Mrs. Santillan made the request after a reautopsy by the Public Attorney’s Office showed that her husband was tortured before being killed.
The widow was accompanied by Chong and Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission commissioner Greco Belgica.
Chong said he could be the real target of the attack and believed that Smartmatic could be behind it.
Chong is an election reform advocate who testified in a congressional investigations on the alleged poll fraud during the 2016 elections and tagged Smartmatic in the cheating.
He even submitted to the President Electoral Tribunal earlier several evidence of fraud in support of the protest of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. against Vice President Leni Robredo.
“There was really no shootout. Smartmatic or politicians who cheated in the elections could be behind this,” Chong alleged.