“They are not missing. [Authorities] were just having a hard time accessing them dahil ayaw lang pumayag yung parents and I think that’s a natural feeling,” De Lima was quoted as saying in a report on Balitanghali.
“Hayaan ang CHR (Commission on Human Rights) na mag-access din sa Kanila para mas maging comfortable sila,” she added.
A report on “24 Oras” on Thursday said the witnesses were missing. Also, the report said one witness living just 50 meters away from where the killings took place purportedly saw how gunmen in two vehicles ambushed the police convoy transporting Ricky Cadavero alias “Kambal” and Wilfredo Panogalinga Jr. alias “Kulot” of the notorious Ozamiz gang.
It was a different version from that of the Ozamiz gangmen’s police escorts, who have said that their convoy was intercepted and shot at by gunmen on motorcycles, the report added.
Also on Thursday, a GMA News source tried contacting the family but they could no longer be reached. The source, who wished to remain anonymous, detailed that members of the family had met with NBI agents on Wednesday midnight, along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City.
However, during the meeting, about 20 members of the Quezon City Police District arrived, the reporty said.
There was a tense moment between the law enforcers, the television report said. But, eventually, the witnesses decided to be escorted by the police. They were taken to QCPD Station Three in Novaliches, it added.
After the incident, the witnesses supposedly requested they be dropped off at a house in Caloocan City.
The NBI was able to locate the Caloocan house, but the witnesses were long gone by the time the agents arrived. — Roehl Niño Bautista /LBG, GMA News
