ILOILO City – Western Visayas top cop Brigadier General Miranda sacked four policemen tagged in the killing of businessman Delfin Britanico a year ago on the Iloilo River Boulevard, Barangay Nabitasan, La Paz district here.
Relieved from their posts yesterday were Police Staff Sergeant Michael Demigillo de Felipe assigned at the La Paz Police Station; Police Staff Sergeant Freddie Libo-on of Dumangas police station; Police Master Sergeant Vernie Lui Escorial of the Iloilo City Police Station (ICPO); and Police Staff Sergeant Ricardo Morante of Police Station 1.
While investigation for their administrative cases is ongoing, these cops will be reassigned at the Police Regional Office 6’s (PRO-6) Regional Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit (RPHAU), according to Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong, spokesperson of the police regional office.
Police Corporal Jerry Villanueva, who was first tagged in Delfin’s Jan. 19, 2020 slay, will remain in the custody of the RPHAU.
“The five suspects including Villanueva will be at the RPHAU while they are under investigation,” Malong said.
Police Corporal Joseph Andrew Joven who was earlier identified by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) as the driver of the Mitsubishi Adventure used in the killing Delfin Britanico pointed to Morante and Escorial as the ones who shot dead Delfin, son of the former congressman Salvador “Buddy” Britanico.
Joven tagged his fellow policemen in a sworn statement attached to his application to be a state witness filed with the Office of the Prosecutor General in the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Ermita, Manila on Dec. 15, 2020.
Joven also named de Felipe and Libo-on as his companions inside the Mitsubishi Adventure.
Morante and Escorial could not be reached for comment as this was being written.
But according to Police Major Marlyn Roquero, ICPO spokesperson, both policemen were placed on “floating status” right after their names were linked to the case.
City police director Police Colonel Eric Dampal reassigned them to the ICPO Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit, said Roquero.
Roquero also confirmed that Morante and Escorial were previously assigned with the ICPO Drug Enforcement Unit.
“The crime committed was murder (qualified by treachery, abuse of superior strength and cruelty) because Delfin was still on board his parked motorcycle, unarmed and outnumbered when he was shot,” according to Britanico.
He added: “After killing Delfin, they took the victim’s cellphone. Visibly, by their concerted acts, there was a conspiracy between Morante and Escorial to commit the crime of murder and theft.”
The NBI initially charged last May 29, 2020 Joven and Villanueva before the DOJ. The complaint was not only on the killing of Delfin but also of a call center agent.
The Jan. 19, 2020 successive killings – just minutes apart – of 36-year-old Delfin and 42-year-old call center agent and drug surrenderer Alain Muller of Jaro district were initially thought as separate incidents. NBI, however, discovered they were related by circumstance.
The first shooting (Muller) took place in Barangay Cuartero, Jaro a little past noon while the one in La Paz (Delfin) happened at around 12:30 p.m.
Muller was peppered with bullets outside his house by two masked men at around 12:05 p.m.
For his part, Police Colonel Eric Dampal, ICPO director, said he could not yet confirm if the four policemen were the same persons who killed Muller.
“Britanico case pa lang and na touch namin. Wala kaming suspect sa Muller case,” Dampal said./PN
