Whistle-blower cop relieved amid new PCSO slay probe

The Philippine National Police official who implicated former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office general manager Royina Garma in the murder of PCSO board secretary and retired police general Wesley Barayuga was relieved from his post and placed under restrictive custody to ensure his security, the PNP announced yesterday.

-  EMMANUEL TUPAS

Lt. Col. Santie Mendoza was relieved from his post at the PNP Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG) last Friday and was reassigned to the personnel holding and accounting unit in Camp Crame to ensure his availability in the probe being conducted by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

"(He is) under restrictive custody to ensure his appearance in the investigation and, of course, to secure him," said PNP public information officer Col. Jean Fajardo at yesterday's news briefing.

Mendoza delivered a bombshell testimony during a House quad committee hearing on Sept. 27 when he tagged Garma and National Police Commission (Napolcom) Commissioner Edilberto Leonardo as the people who orchestrated Barayuga's murder in Mandaluyong City in July 2020.

Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, presiding officer of the quad committee of the House of Representatives, revealed that the Department of Justice is assessing whether Mendoza can be tapped as a state witness in Barayuga's murder.

"He (Mendoza) seems eligible for the government's Witness Protection Program. But it is the DOJ that is making this evaluation because there is a current prohibition insofar as government personnel are concerned," Barbers told dzRH.

"As you can see, the testimony of Mendoza is very revealing, especially because this is an admission against self-interest. That is why we see him as a very credible witness, in light of his admission that his conscience has been bothering him for a long time," he added.

Aside from Mendoza, Fajardo said Col. Hector Grijaldo was also sacked from his PDEG post and placed on floating status. Grijaldo, Mandaluyong police chief at the time of Barayuga's murder, was the first official who probed the incident.