DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 6 July) – The family of Amierkhan Mangacop, who was killed in a shooting incident at a bar in Davao City last Saturday, requested for the transfer of case investigation from the police to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)-Davao as they feel that the police could not be “objective and fair.”
The Mangacop family – in a letter sent to NBI-Davao director Jonathan Balite, City Prosecution Office chief Jhopee Avanceña, and Inquest Prosecutor Irene Joy Montero – said they are hesitant to forward to the police the names of witnesses and pieces of evidence for fear of suppression or whitewash amid the recent “statements and actions” of the police officers that seem to favor Dr. Marvin Rey Andrew R. Pepino, the suspect in the brutal killing of the 19-year-old victim.
The family sent the letter on Tuesday but was released to media on Wednesday.
Pepino, 31, was a doctor employed as a non-uniformed personnel at the Police Regional Office (PRO)-Davao.
The suspect was the son of the late Maj. Gen. Marvin Manuel Pepino, who served as director of the Cybercrime Investigation Office of the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center.
The letter said the Mangacop family demands a fair and just investigation, requesting the San Pedro Police Station and the PNP Davao Region to inhibit from the case investigation and to transfer the case files, including those in possession of the PNP Davao Cybercrime Unit for Forensic, to the NBI-Davao “in the interest of the sacred right of the Mangacop family to due process and equal protection.”
The family deplored the statement of Maj. Benkalin Baluan, chief of the San Pedro Police Station, during an interview with the media made hours after the incident alleging it was the victim who mauled Pepino, prompting him to shoot Mangacop “as an act of self-defense.”
The family said further that Col. Albert Lupaz, DCPO director, described Pepino in a separate press conference last Monday as “very professional and kind and that he has no derogatory record” with PRO-Davao and stated “it was only because of his drunken state that he shot Amierkhan seven times out of self-defense.”
Lupaz told reporters that there would be no special treatment for Pepino and assured the victim’s family of fair and objective investigation.
Mangacop succumbed to seven gunshot wounds.
Police filed a complaint for murder and Section 31 of Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act, which prohibits the carrying of a licensed firearm outside residence without permit, before the Office of City Prosecution on Monday.
But the Mangacop family alleged that the police investigator during the inquest proceedings deliberately stated that “the Legal Team of the victim refused to include portions of the Affidavit of the Apprehending Officer” when the Mangacop’s counsel only wanted the omission of portions of the affidavit “which would hint at or to Amierkhan as one of the assailants who unlawfully attacked Pepino —- which allegations are untrue, false, and fabricated.”
The family said, in a statement published on the Facebook page “Justice for Amier Mangacop” on Tuesday, that the victim was not involved in the commotion at Lugar Café and Bar at corner V. Mapa and J. Camus Extension Streets.
They said the victim came to the bar to pick up his cousin who was afraid to go home alone. They added that upon arriving at the bar, there was already an ongoing commotion involving other people, including Pepino.
They said “case conferences were created for the purpose of ensuring a strong case for the prosecution and not for the defense.”
“Given the statements and actions of the Davao police officers mentioned, the victim’s family feels that the PNP Davao Region cannot objectively and fairly continue with the investigation of the murder case,” the family said. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
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