Picked up on Friday, faked as arrested on Saturday
Picked up on Friday, faked as
arrested on Saturday
By TOTO CAUSINGThis is what will happen if there is no Jury System in place in the Philippines: no end in police abuses.
This is because policemen in the Philippines do not fear the present justice system that they will be caught.
Additionally, the policemen enjoy the presumption that they are performing their work officially that it is difficult to pin them down and much harder for their victims-accused to get acquittal if the battle in court becomes the words of the corrupt policemen versus the words of the hapless accused who are innocent.
Under the Jury System, the eyes of the jurors give equal look and equal weight to the accused, the policemen and the witnesses and it is up to them to prove the truth they profess in their testimonies.
Charges filed at NBI vs NCRPO RAID-SOTG policemen
Policemen of Camp Bagong Diwa’s Regional Anti Illegal Drugs-Special Operations Task Group (RAID-SOTG) have been charged before the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) after they picked up Chinese national Renato “Ato” Go on a Friday and stage-managed him to have been arrested the next day in a shabu buy-bust operation.
The charges of arbitrary detention and planting of drug charge were filed by Evelyn Go, wife of Renato, of Pinya Avenue, Sta. Mesa, Manila, after RAID-SOTG operatives fabricated stories against her husband.
Abducted on Friday
According to her, Evelyn and Renato went to Tropicana in Sta. Mesa, Manila about 2:00 in the afternoon of March 11, 2011 when they arrived there.
She went inside the place dropped her bingo raffle tickets into a drop box while Renato was left in their parked vehicle.
After dropping the bingo raffle tickets, Evelyn went out only to find Renato and the vehicle nowhere to be found.
She sent a text message and called Renato but his phone did not answer.
About 5:00 pm of that day, her cell phone rang and it was Renato, who then told her to proceed to the adjacent Mercury Drug store.
Arriving there, she found their vehicle.
But as she went closer, an unidentified man got off their vehicle and ordered her to get up.
For fear, she obeyed.
Inside, she saw her husband in handcuffs beside two other unidentified armed men.
One of the armed men drove the vehicle to Baclaran, Parañaque City before driving back to Manila where they stopped at Aristocrat on Raja Sulayman Park along Roxas Boulevard.
The armed men went out of the vehicle and talked to another unidentified man.
When the armed men returned to the vehicle, Evelyn was ordered to disembark but not after taking her bag that was searched by one of the armed men.
Thereafter, the bag was returned but her two cell phones, one landline wireless phone, and load cards were already missing. She was then ordered to board in another vehicle.
On two vehicles, they proceeded to Max’s Restaurant in Magallanes Village, Makati City where the armed men feasted on food while leaving Evelyn and Renato inside the two vehicles.
Brought to camp
Thereafter, the armed men returned and they proceeded to Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City.
It was at that time that Evelyn knew that their abductors were policemen who brought them to the office of RAID-SOTG about 11:00 pm.
Inside RAID-SOTG, Evelyn and Renato were photographed and taken of finger prints.
One of the policemen then handed Renato a cell phone ordering him to call somebody. Evelyn claimed a cop told her she can be set free for P6 million while her husband was worth more.
She was nevertheless set free but told to come back tomorrow or else something bad would happen to her husband.
Evelyn never came back.
Blotter of disappearance: Saturday noon
On March 12, because the Go couple failed to return home, their nephew, Benbar Carolino, called and informed a family friend Helen Santor that his aunt and uncle had not returned home since they left home on March 11.
Santor called another family friend, Clarito Samson, and informed him of the disappearance of Evelyn and Renato who then advised them to report the disappearance of the couple to the Manila Police District station in Sampaloc and MPD Headquarters on UN Avenue, Manila.
The MPD then issued a certificate of entry of the blotter about the disappearance.
4:00 pm, Saturday: Go was brought
out of camp to buy-bust drama place
About 4:00 p.m. of Saturday, Evelyn said RAID-SOTG took Renato out of the camp and returned him there at 10:30 pm.
Evelyn did not know where they brought her husband and what they did to him because he cannot speak Tagalog.
Following the incident, Evelyn was delivered by policemen to her home in Sta. Mesa and instructed her to return the next day to Camp Bagong Diwa where Renato was still detained.
At 6:00am of March 13, after Evelyn had slightly recovered from the mental torture, she immediately called the Union Bank hotline and requested to freeze all transactions involving the ATM accounts of her husband in Araneta Avenue, Quezon City and Tutuban, Manila Union Bank branches.
On March 14, Evelyn was surprised to hear radio news and read newspaper articles detailing her husband was caught in a buy-bust operation with 3.6 kilos of shabu.
But what shocked her was that it was reported that her husband was arrested on March 12.
This is because Evelyn said it was impossible to happen because she and her husband were picked up on March 11 and taken in custody by the operatives.
P200,000 withdrawn from his banks
while Renato was being detained
On March 20, Evelyn received a call from Renato informing her that a cop named James Barbajera, alias James Barbie, gave him P200,000, but it was taken back by the same policeman.
She learned from him that the money was withdrawn from his bank accounts without his consent and while he was being detained.
They learned that when the policemen knew that a UNTV reporter came to get news about the arrest of Go, policemen gave him P200,000 that he did not know why, only to learn that it was withdrawn from his banks without him knowing.
But after giving the money, police officer James Barbie took the money back.
The lawyer of Go came to claim the money but this James Barbie did not give the money reasoning he had yet to attend a hearing.
Tortured while detained
On March 28, Evelyn received another phone call from Renato asking that he be brought to a hospital because of stomach pains as a result of his manhandling by policemen.
Evelyn said that Renato told her he requested from his jailers to bring him to a hospital but it was rejected.
Luckily, they managed to get help from a police official who ordered the medical examination.
Transferred to Quezon City Jail
Due to the torture incidents, the lawyer of Go, Atty. Cirilo P. Sabarre Jr. of Renta Pe & Associates filed a motion requesting the transfer of Go to the Quezon City Jail.
The court granted the motion and RAID-SOTG turned over the money to the City Jail.
But when the money was turned over, it was only P180,000 and RAID-SOTG operatives reasoned out that the P20,000 amount was used for the “board and lodging” of Go in Camp Bagong Diwa.
At present, Go is still being tried at QC RTC Branch 82.
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