CPD CHIEF: 5 AWOL COPS TO FACE CHARGES

AUTHORITIES are now preparing criminal charges against five Central Police
District (CPD) cops implicated in the summary execution of an Army
reservist in Quezon City last week.

Senior Supt. Napoleon Castro, CPD chief, said in an interview yesterday
that they would file the charges against the five lawmen once investigators
gather enough evidence to indict them.

Castro said the suspects have not been reporting for work and has since
been declared absent without leave (AWOL).

The five policemen, Police Officers 1 Henry Garcia, Noel Fabia, Joseph Mike
Prado, Ramon Velasco, and a certain Gadal, all assigned to CPD Station 11's
Drug Enforcement Unit, are suspected of killing Cris Gonzales last
Wednesday morning.

Gonzales, whose body was found inside a drum at a vacant lot near the
corner of Mindanao Ave. Ext. and Regalado St., has a string of criminal
cases, including drug trafficking, car theft and robbery.

Witnesses told investigators that the five policemen killed Gonzales
following a raid on Gonzales' home in Banawe at dawn Tuesday.

The CPD director said he would relieve the five cops' immediate superior
officer, Supt. Armando Amparo, for failing to meet the deadline to present
them.

The names of Amparo's two possible replacements are now with Quezon City
Mayor Feliciano "Sonny" Belmonte for approval.

The suspects, Castro said, have already sent surrender feelers. Castro,
however, declined to elaborate.