By Jeffrey Damicog
Two policemen face murder and theft charges before the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the allegedly killing two people in Iloilo City, including the son of a former congressman.
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Officer-In-Charge Eric Distor said on Tuesday, June 2, the NBI’s Death Investigation Division (NBI-DID) filed the charges last Friday, May 29, against Police Corporals Jerry Villanueva, Joseph Andrew Joven, and two unidentified suspects.
Distor said the case concerns the two separate shooting incidents that took place just minutes apart in Barangay Nabitasan, Iloilo City at around noon on January 19 and resulted in the deaths of Allen Muller and Delfin Britanico, the son of former Barangay Association for National Advancement and Transparency (BANAT) party-list Rep. and former Iloilo Assemblyman Salvador Britanico.
Muller, who has been described in reports as a call center agent and drug surrenderer, was the first one who was gunned down.
NBI investigators also learned from witnesses that the same vehicle was seen in the killing of Delfin and one of the suspects was noticed to be taking something from the victim. NBI investigators traced the Adventure car model to the PAPO Car Rental and that Joven had rented the vehicle. The owner of the business told investigators that Joven confessed to him that “the Adventure he rented was used by his group as their getaway vehicle in killing Muller and Del.”
“Subject Joven admitted that he was the driver of the group. Further, subject Joven said that after killing Muller, they stopped at a vacant lot in Nabitasan, La Paz to strip off the white stickers from the Adventure. Del saw and confronted them so they shot Del to death,” the NBI said in a statement.
“Subject Joven also asked the owner of the car rental to pin one Osting Del Pilar, a drug-related target of their group, in case an investigation about the death of Muller and Del would ensue,” it added.
The NBI said Delfin’s wife described her husband as having a “temper for traffic violators and does not hesitate to take photographs or videos of such and post them on social media.”
“With this, the subjects may have assumed that Del reported their activities to authorities when he made a call or that he took photos or videos of them. Hence, after inflicting several fatal wounds at Del, they took his mobile phone without his consent,” the NBI said.