Cagayan exec denies role in slay of 5 ‘guns-for-hire’

By Charlie Lagasca

TUGUEGARAO CITY – This city’s vice mayor denied allegations implicating him in last May’s killing of five suspected guns-for-hire, which he described as baseless and unfounded. 

           

“My conscience is clear. I am innocent of the charges,” said Vice Mayor DaniloBaccay. 

The Commission on Human Rights’ regional office based here said Monday it did not include Baccay in its findings for multiple murder submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman. 

           

Baccay, elder brother of Cagayan Auxiliary Bishop Ricardo Baccay, said the accusations against him were all based on perjured statements by supposed witnesses, manipulated by his political detractors. 

“Do you think I am capable of doing such evil things? In fact, the CHR has already cleared me of any hand in the case,” he said.

CHR special investigator Antonino Cruz said it was not their office but the victims’ relatives who included Baccay in the complaint sheet for five counts of murder and grave abuse of authority before the Ombudsman. 

The CHR said it only named Abra police director Alexander Rafael and four still unidentified members of the regional police intelligence unit in the charge sheet it submitted to the Ombudsman.

           

Earlier, it was reported that Baccayand five policemen have been charged with multiple murder before the Office of the Ombudsman for the killing of five suspected guns-for-hire last May. 

           

Reports earlier said the CHR-Cagayan Valley, which assisted the victims’ families in filing the case, identified among those charged as Baccay and Rafael.

           

Also reportedly included in the complaint sheet of five counts of murder, grave misconduct and grave abuse of authority as well as incriminating an innocent person are four Cagayan policemen identified only as John Does.

           

The CHR earlier said its findings show there was a probable cause to indict the suspects in the killing of Leonard Apolonio, Daniel Villamor, NomerBiendima, Isabelo Bernal and Michael Bermudez, all from Abra, who police had tagged as members of a gun-for-hire group.

           

Baccay was linked to the killing after he was reportedly found to own one of the firearms found in the crime scene.

           

Earlier, the regional police based in Tuguegarao City said the killing was the result of a legitimate shootout with Rafael’s group along the Maharlika Highway in Barangay San Lorenzo, Lallo town last May 1.

           

Rafael claimed then that the slain suspects aboard a Toyota Corona had tailed them while they were on their way to his hometown in Cagayan from Ilocos Sur.

           

His group, he said, was only forced to fire back at the suspects after they refused to stop when they were flagged down.

           

The CHR, however, said, “There is no argument as to the fact that the victims were killed by police Senior Superintendent Alexander Rafael and four unidentified police officers from the Intelligence Division of Police Regional Office No. 02.”

           

The CHR conducted its own investigation after the victims’ families expressed suspicion that the incident was a case of rubout and not a legitimate shootout, as the police claimed.

           

Earlier, Chief Supt. Rodrigo de Gracia, Cagayan Valley police director, said one of the slain suspects was earlier apprehended by the Abra police and supposedly confessed their supposed illegal activities in Cagayan, including a plot to assassinate several prominent politicians in the province.