DOJ clears 3 cops of QC prosecutor’s killing

The Department of Justice has dismissed the murder complaint against the three policemen accused of killing Quezon City prosecutor Rogelio Velasco last year.

In a May 8 resolution seen Monday, Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong cleared Police Senior Master Sergeant Rodante Sicat Lalimarmo, Police Staff Sargeant Arthur Yasonia Lucy, Patrolman Jose Lunar Mercado, and seven unnamed men and an unnamed woman of murder charges for "insufficiency of evidence."

Apart form being "insufficient," "some" of the evidence presented by the complainants -- the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and one of Velasco's daughters, Vanessa -- are "inadmissible, unbelievable, untrue and contradictory," Ong found.

Velasco died on May 11, 2018 after four men, who allegedly alighted from a white Toyota Innova that blocked the prosecutor's red Innova in Quezon City, shot him. His daughters, who were with him in the car, survived the shooting.

The complainants had raised that animosity between Velasco and Mercado, one of the policemen, was the motive for the killing. The NBI turned in CCTV footage as evidence and alleged the man in the white polo shirt was Mercado, but Ong said the "face of the man is unclear."

To further support the animosity motive, the NBI also alleged that Velasco told Mercado on the day before he died: "Goddamit, alam mo na pulis ka! Bakit pinabayaan mo ang kapatid mo na mag drugs."

A witness said Velasco's daughter, Victoria, was asleep in his room when the late prosecutor made the statement. But Ong said Victoria later said she did not know whether or not she was in the room.

"Thus, she was unable to confirm such utterance. As such, it raises doubt whether or not such utterance really transpired," Ong said.

The investigating prosecutor also noted that "all assailants cannot be identified from the CCTV footage at the crime scene." He likewise found no merit in the NBI's "recourse" -- the "unbelievable, if not coached" story of two witnesses that their vehicle was twice cut by a white Innova near Philcoa and near Tandang Sora flyover.

"Complainants should not rely on speculations and conjectures to support their case," Ong wrote in the resolution. "Mere speculations and probabilities cannot substitute for proof required to establish the guilt of an accused beyond reasonable doubt."

"Neither should complainants rely on suspicion, for suspicion alone is not sufficient," he added. — RSJ, GMA News