THE PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has started sending subpoenas to individuals linked to the 2020 murder of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) board secretary Wesley Barayuga.
In a press briefing at Camp Crame, PNP spokeswoman Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo warned those who will ignore the subpoenas can be cited in contempt, detained and charged.
“They have subpoenaed some individuals, including documents, to complete the picture,” Fajardo said, without giving the number and identities of people who were given the subpoenas.
PNP chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil has ordered the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) to revive the investigation on the killing of Baruyuga after police Lt. Col. Santie Mendoza implicated National Police Commission (Napolcom) commissioner Edilberto Leonardo and former PSCO general manager Royina Garma to the crime.
Barayuga was shot dead in Barangay Highway Hills in Mandaluyong City on July 30, 2020, while aboard his PCSO service vehicle. His driver, Jojo Gunao, was injured in the attack.
Leonardo, a retired police colonel, was named Napolcom commissioner in February 2022 by former President Rodrigo Duterte. Napolcom commissioners have a fixed six-year term.
Garma, also a retired police colonel, once headed the Davao City police station. Duterte named her as PSCO general manager in 2019.
During a recent House quad committee hearing, Mendoza alleged he was instructed by Leonardo and Garma to carry out the hit on Barayuga in exchange for P300,000, a claim corroborated by retired police Corporal Nelson Mariano who admitted recruiting the hitman, a certain “Loloy.”
“We are now in the process of completing the documents,” said Fajardo, adding that murder charges will be filed against anyone who will be found involved in the killing.
“We want the testimony given during the quad comm (hearing) to be substantiated with evidence, particularly documents and other testimony coming from some personalities that may have knowledge over this case,” she said.
Fajardo also said efforts are underway to locate the whereabouts of police sergeant Jeremy Causapin, a former aide of Garma, who was reportedly the one who gave the P300,000 to Mariano for the murder of Barayuga.
“I understand there are efforts to locate him and we are at the stage where the CIDG is conducting manhunt to locate the whereabout of Jeremy Causapin,” she said.
Police operatives recently went to Causapin’s residence, but he was not around. His wife gave to the policemen her husband’s letter of resignation from the PNP.
Causapin will remain to be a member of the PNP pending a decision on his resignation letter.
“He will be considered AWOL (absent without official leave),” Fajardo said, adding it would be in the best interest of Causapin to surrender and cooperate with the investigation.
“We intend to protect him and at the same time give him the chance to hear his side of the story,” she said.
