By AARON RECUENCO
Police have formed tracker teams to locate and arrest four popular militant activists and former party-list representatives in connection with the arrest warrant issued by a Nueva Ecija court for charges of murder.
It was the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) which was primarily tasked to capture former Bayan Muna Representatives Satur Ocampo and Teddy Casino, former Anakpawis Rep. and Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano and former Gabriela representative and now National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) Chairperson Liza Maza.
Aside from the four, included in the arrest warrant were Vicente Cayetano, Delfin Pimentel, and Emeterio Antalan, according to Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Albayalde.
“I have directed the CIDG over the weekend to immediately send out arresting teams to serve the warrant of arrest against them,” said Albayalde.
“The PNP is duty bound to implement orders of judicial authorities. That is our constitutional mandate that law enforcers must abide with due consideration to human rights and dignity of the accused,” he added.
The charges stemmed from the kidnap-slay of three people in Nueva Ecija who were reportedly supporters of the rival group Anakbayan. The incidents separately occurred in 2001, 2003 and 2004.
The seven were charged in connection of the incident and the case was raffled to Branch 40 of the Palayan City Regional Trial Court. But the judge returned the case to the Office of the City Prosecutor for further investigation.
The accused questioned the decision of Judge Evelyn Turla as the court should have dismissed the case for failure to establish probable cause.
The case was elevated to the Supreme Court and in February last year, the SC ordered the court to continue with the proceedings since remanding the case to the Prosecutor’s Office was improper.
The High Court, in its ruling, stated that Judge Turla should have decided if there was a probable cause on the case instead of encroaching on the job of the Prosecutor’s Office by asking the latter to re-investigate.
Albayalde said they have already received the copy of the arrest warrant issued by Judge Turla late last week.
He then appealed to the group of Ocampo to surrender instead of playing hide and seek with the government.
“I am appealing to these individuals to just turn themselves in and to submit themselves to judicial processes,” said Albayalde.
As of yesterday, Albayalde said they have not received any surrender feelers from any of the accused.
