ANGELES CITY – Fearing for his safety even under the custody of the Department of Justice (DOJ), the lone witness in the murder-carnapping cases facing the Dominguez brothers in the gruesome killings of car dealers last January, has fled his custodians and sought refuge in the hands of his lawyer.
This was confirmed to Punto by Willie Rivera, lawyer of witness Alfred Mendoza, saying that two of his client’s custodians at the DOJ were preventively suspended after they allegedly did not coordinate with higher authorities for allowing his client to leave Thursday night. Mendiola’s departure caused some concern among DOJ authorities, he said.
But Rivera said he was able to reach Mendiola by phone the following day and convinced him to meet with him somewhere in Bulacan.
“I persuaded him to seek protection in a jail while being under my custody and he agreed,” he said without giving out details on the exact location for the safety of his client.
Rivera said that over the weekend, Mendiola expressed fears for his safety in the DOJ safehouse in Manila and also complained about some discomforts.
“His life is in danger,” said Senior Supt. Rudy Lacadin, regional chief of the police’s
Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) at Camp Olivas in San Fernando who initially confirmed that Dominguez was missing in his safehouse under the DOJ in Manila.
Mendoza had tagged brothers Roger and Raymond Dominguez as the alleged killers of car dealers Venson Evangelista and Oliver Lozano, as well as the latter’s aide Ernani Sencil whose badly burnt bodies were found in various parts of Central Luzon after they were abducted during a supposed test drive of the second hand cars they were selling.
The brothers have remained in jail, together with one alleged accomplice named Jason Miranda, after they were charged in the case of Evangelista.
Lacadin said Mendoza used to be detained at Camp Olivas but was turned over two weeks ago to the DOJ which had approved him as state witness under the government state witness protection program.
Mendoza’s lawyer Willie Rivera declined to comment on whether his client had indeed fled the DOJ. Earlier, he said that the life of Mendoza was in danger and that there was a standing offer of P10 million for him to recant his testimony against the Dominguez brothers. He did not say, however, who had made the offer.
Rivera, in an earlier interview, said that Mendoza was the lone witness against the Dominguezes, and that his testimonies were “strong”.
Justice Sec. Leila de Lima had ordered a probe on why the Dominguez brothers, who had faced no less than 19 other criminal charges before, had been allowed to post bail each time.
Only recently, Mendiola, through Rivera, sought the inhibition of Quezon City Regional Trial Court, branch 215 Judge Ma. Luisa Padilla from the case because “her opinion and judgment has already been clouded and swayed by public opinion.”
Rivera noted that even after the DOJ made Mendiola a state witness, the judge refused to exclude his client’s name in the list of the accused. Instead of ruling on his motion, Padilla insisted on the arraignment of Mendiola and the latter’s entry of a not guilty plea despite his vehement objections, he said.
“The objection of the counsel of accused Mendiola is validly warranted considering that the latter was already issued a Certificate of Admission accepting him as a qualified state witness by the DOJ and the only thing left for the Honorable Court is to discharge the accused and order his exclusion from the information as mandated by RSA 6981,” Rivera’s motion said.
This prompted Padilla to lash at Rivera, saying that the motion to inhibit her would only delay the case against the Dominguezes.
In his official testimony, Mendoza, the Dominguez group was not only involved in the Evangelista killing, but in the Lozano-Sencil murders as well. He said Lozano and Sencil were killed after members of the syndicate thought Lozano was trying to pull a gun while they were abducting him on Jan. 12.
He said Lozano and Sencil joined the suspects for a test drive when they posed as buyers of Lozano’s Kia Carnival.
Mendoza said it was on the same day the Dominguez group went to Lozano, after Evangelista did not allow them to road test a luxury vehicle that he was selling.
A house helper of the Evangelista family positively identified Mendiola as the transvestite who was with Venson the day the car dealer went missing after test-diving the vehicle he was selling.
Mendiola admitted this, saying he was a member of the Dominguez carjacking group. He said he met the Dominguez brothers inside a Bulacan jail, and showed a photo of them together that was taken inside Camp Alejo Santos in Bulacan.
While he saying he did not participate in the killing of Evangelista, Mendoza testified that Roger Dominguez later informed him that the victim was already killed and burned.
Mendiola, however, denied any involvement in the abduction and killing of Emerson Lozano and Sencil.
At the height of reports on the killings, De Lima said that carnapping would not have grown as a criminal activity “without the collusion or conspiracy” of law enforcers from the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation.
She also said that even government prosecutors who handled the carnapping cases against Dominguez would be subject to investigation.
