NCRPO chief vows justice for murdered cop
NATIONAL Capital Region Police Office director, Brigadier General Anthony A. Aberin has vowed justice for the late Police Executive Master Sergeant Emmanuel de Asis who was believed to have been killed inside Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City before his dismembered body was found buried in Baguio City.
The official said he has ordered the NCRPO Command Group to closely supervise an impartial and swift investigation of the De Asis case, maintaining that their commitment to deliver justice is ‘iron-clad.’ The victim is a member of the Puerto Princesa City Police Office.
He also ordered Southern Police District director, Brig. Gen. Bernard R. Yang to ensure the meticulous and proper collection of pieces of evidence regarding the case following established procedures.
The NCRPO chief said that the criminal cases filed against the suspects before the Department of Justice should be airtight and ensure the certainty of conviction.
Brig. Gen. Aberin said he has also instructed the NCRPO Regional Investigation and Detection Management Division to subject the accused identified as 45-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Rhoderick Pascua of the Eastern Police District Community Affairs Division and his wife, a Non-Commissioned Officer assigned with the regional mobile group with the same rank as that of the victim, to a pre-charge investigation.
The two have been placed under restrictive custody by the Taguig City police.
“If evidence warrants and after the appropriate legal processes are undertaken, the suspects involved should be dismissed from the service while facing the criminal cases against them,” said Brig. Gen. Aberin.
“There will be no stone left unturned in this investigation. The evidence is overwhelming, and I specifically instructed concerned units to ensure the filing of airtight criminal and administrative cases against the suspects,” he added.
Journal Group sources said that neighbors of the couple inside Camp Bagong Diwa have told investigators they did not hear any gunshot during the day the victim was reportedly killed.
This has prompted officials to thoroughly check the records of the victim and the suspects’ vehicles in the area as well as their mobile phones which may contain clues that will lead to the solution of the case.
Initially, the killing was reported to have been hatched by the official after he discovered that the victim was having an affair with his wife.
However, the victim’s family, through his son Police Captain Anthony de Asis, rejected such theory and said that his father was abducted, tortured, and killed before the cadaver was chopped into pieces by the suspects and several others.
Earlier reports said that Lt. Col. Pascua caught his wife and the victim in their quarters inside Camp Bagong Diwa last November 28. The official reportedly shot the elder de Asis to death before asking his wife’s help in chopping the victim into pieces.
The victim’s body was eventually discovered buried in a lot owned by Pascua’s family in Barangay Pucsusan in Baguio City.
The hacksaw said to have been used in cutting off the victim’s body to pieces is yet to be recovered. The suspects’ pickup which was believed to have been used to transport the slain cop’s body to Baguio City has been impounded by the police for forensic investigation.
