Police Staff Sgt. Jonel Nuezca is no stranger to slaying cases as he faced two homicide charges in May and December last year. Both cases, however, were dismissed.
Gen. Debold Sinas, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said Nuezca used to be a member of the Station Drug Enforcement Unit and as an anti-narcotics operative, he was involved in various police operations amid the aggressive drug war.
“The two homicide cases were drug-related. They conducted raids and there were incidents that the suspects fight back,” said Sinas.
He said the motu-propio investigation of the Internal Affairs Service (IAS) found no substantial evidence against Nuezca and other members of the SDEU, leading to the dismissal of the two cases last year.
Nuezca was re-assigned to the PNP Crime Laboratory based in Parañaque City.
Sinas said the other cases of Nuezca were minor cases. Aside from the two homicide cases, there were four more cases slapped against Nuezca, one of them led to his suspension for 10 days and the other one resulted in his demotion to his current rank and suspension of 31 days.
Among these minor cases were refusal to undergo a drug test and ignoring a court hearing wherein he would testify as a witness against a drug suspect.
“But there was no case of extortion,” said Sinas.
What Hitman?
Sinas also refuted the reported claim of Sen. Imee Marcos that Nuezca is a regular hitman.
“I don’t think so. He just know how to use the gun because it is expected of him because he is a policeman,” said Sinas.
“We have trainings. We have gun-handling and we also have firearms proficiency. But he (Nuezca) is not a hitman,” he added.
Assistance
On Tuesday night, Sinas went to the house of the Gregorio family to pay last respect to the two victims.
Sinas reportedly also assured the Gregorio family that the PNP does not tolerate what Nuezca did and that justice will be served to the two victims.
“We will give cash assistance to them,” said Sinas.
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