PNP group probes ambush of Cagayan vice mayor, 5 aides

SANTIAGO CITY — Police in Cagayan Valley Region created a special investigation task group to speed up investigation on the killing of Aparri, Cagayan Vice Mayor Rommel Alameda and five others ambushed morning of Feb. 19 in Sitio Kinacao, Barangay Baretbet, Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya.
    In a statement, Brigadier General Percival Rumbaoa, Cagayan Valley police chief, said police units from the region, including those in Aparri and Bagabag town, were tapped to form the task group.
    The Philippine National Police on Tuesday disclosed investigators were looking into three possible motives — political, business and personal ambush in Nueva Vizcaya that killed Alameda and five others.
     PNP chief Police General Rodolfo Azurin Jr. said part of the investigation was to determine if the perpetrators were indeed policemen as witnesses said they were wearing police uniforms when they blocked a road in Bagabag town and eventually fired at the vehicle of Alameda.
    But Col. Jovencio Badua Jr., deputy regional director for operations of the Cagayan Valley police, said Thursday that contrary to reports that assailants were in police uniform, witnesses told investigators the armed men wore military uniforms.
    The armed men who ambushed Alameda and his five companions were wearing Army uniforms and speaking in Ilocano and Tagalog, officials said Thursday.
    Badua said probers showed two pixelized uniforms of the police and military to the witnesses.
    “The witnesses pointed to the uniform of the military and said the assailants were in ‘full-pack,’ ” Badua said.
    He said the chassis number of the Mitsubishi Adventure believed used as a getaway vehicle in the crime was registered to a person in Metro Manila.
    The vehicle was found burned in Solano town.
    Col. Jean Fajardo, spokesperson for the Philippine National Police, said some witnesses heard the armed men talking in Ilocano and Tagalog, although the witnesses could not identify the suspects.
    She said they also received information that there were two civilians who took videos of the shooting, but the gunmen seized their phones.
    Alameda and his five aides, including a cousin, were on their way to Pasay City in Metro Manila to attend the 27th Vice Mayors’ League national convention and election of officers when waylaid in Baretbet at 8:45 a.m.
    Initial investigation showed the armed men were clad in police uniforms and wore masks.
    The police said the assailants also used a white Mitsubishi Adventure with a red license plate number SFN 713, indicating that it was a government car.
    The killers reportedly barricaded the section of street in front of MV Duque Elementary School, and opened fire on Alameda’s black Hyundai Starex van when it arrived, causing the victims to die on the spot.
    Alameda’s slain companions were his cousin and driver, John Duane Alameda, 46; and his aides, Alexander delos Angeles, 47; Alvin Abel, 48; Abraham Ramos Jr., 48; and Ismael Nanay, all residents of Aparri.
    Rumbaoa denied that the culprits were policemen.
    In an interview on Monday, Major Oscar Abrogena, Bagabag police chief, said the alleged getaway vehicle of the killers was found that Sunday afternoon abandoned and burned at Barangay Uddiawan in Solano, some 19 km from the crime scene.

He said they had coordinated with the Land Transportation Office to trace the owner of the car based on its chassis and engine numbers.

“We would trace the registered owner, and in case it was sold, we would look for the last buyer. This will help in the investigation,” Abrogena said.

The initial red plate was traced to a pickup car owned by a school in Nueva Vizcaya, which indicated that it could be fake.

The Cagayan chapter of the Vice Mayors’ League of the Philippines condemned the killings.

In a separate interview, Tuguegarao City Vice Mayor Bienvenido de Guzman, the league’s chapter president, described the ambush as “dastardly acts” of the killers.

He asked witnesses to come out and help authorities in the investigation.

De Guzman described Alameda as “a person with passion and commitment to serving his constituents.”

Alameda is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, who is a former Aparri councilor, and their two children.

In 2010, Alameda was first elected as vice mayor for two consecutive terms until 2016.

In 2016, he ran for mayor but lost.

He was again elected vice mayor in 2019.

Alameda was reelected in the May 2022 elections and would have served until 2025.

Alameda and his companions John Duane Alameda, Abraham Ramos Jr., Ismael Nanay, Alexander delos Angeles and Alvin Abel were aboard a black Hyundai Starex van when a group of six masked individuals in police uniforms gunned them down at around 8:45 a.m. Sunday in Sitio Kinacao in Bagabag.

On Monday, PNP spokesperson Fajardo said local investigators were able to lift some numbers in the chassis number of the burned vehicle.

 “Based on the initial finding of the forensic group in Nueva Vizcaya, it appears that the chassis number and the engine number of the burned Mitsubishi Adventure had been tampered and defaced, however the Highway Patrol Group in Nueva Vizcaya was able to lift some chassis number,” Fajardo said.

 For his part, PNP chief information officer Col. Redrico Maranan said there was coordination made with the Land Transportation Office and it was found out that the government plate that was seen attached to that vehicle was registered to a vehicle that was currently impounded at the Nueva Vizcaya State University.

In other developments, Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr. condemned Tuesday the ambush of Alameda and his companions.

Police have identified the registered owner of a sport utility vehicle (SUV) believed used by the assailants in the ambush of Alameda and his five companions.

Fajardo said the special investigation task group (SITG) has the name of the owner of the Mitsubishi Adventure, which was found burned in Solano town on Monday morning.

“We coordinated with the LTO. We have the name of the registered owner,” Fajardo said, referring to the Land Transportation Office.

She said the SITG is coordinating with local police units in locating the registered owner, whose name is being withheld pending results of the investigation.

Initial investigation showed the vehicle’s chassis and engine numbers were tampered with and defaced.

The LTO-Nueva Vizcaya said the killers used a fake motor vehicle plate as the original plates, similar to the one attached to the Mitsubishi Adventure, are intact and safe in the LTO storage room.

Marietta Flores, chief of the LTO-Nueva Vizcaya, said the two original plates SFN 713 have been in the possession of the LTO since March 2019.

“Records showed that the original plate number belonged to a junked vehicle of the Nueva Vizcaya State University. Since the vehicle was junked in 2018, the university deposited the plates in our office on March 5, 2019,” Flores said.

Probers are also searching for footage of surveillance cameras installed all the way to Aparri in Cagayan to track the assailants, she said. -- By Villamor Visaya Jr., Glen Jacob Jose, Victor Martin and Aldwin Quitasol