CEBU CITY- A policeman who allegedly
abducted an aeronautics engineer voluntarily surrendered to authorities last Thursday
(31st of October) and was immediately detained at the Bagong Buhay
Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) here in Cebu City.
PO3 Francisco Lacno, of the Carbon
Police precinct, turned himself in four days after regional trial court Judge
German Lee jr. Of Branch 15 issued a warrant for his arrest.
Senior Insp. Lita Quilanton, BBRC female
jail warden, said Lacno was turned over at 10:35 a.m.
Lacno, who has stopped reporting
for work since Tuesday, did not surrender to the police Regional Office (PRO) 7
special operation section (SOS) which formed three teams to track him down.
Instead, he gives himself up
directly to Lee who then issued a commitment order remanding him to BBRC.
Lacno was escorted by PO3 Nilo
Dandan, his colleague at the Carbon Police precinct, who turned him over to the
city jail.
Acting SOS Chief Oscar Cresencio
said an SOS team went to the residence of lawyer Hector Fernandez, Lacno’s
legal counsel, after they received a call that the suspect would surrender to
authorities. The police team learned later Lacno had already surrendered voluntarily
to Lee, Cresencio said.
Lacno was charge with the disappearance
of 30-year-old Jerry Macairan, an aeronautics engineer who was abducted by four
persons in front of SM Cebu on the evening of June 10 this year (1996).
Witnesses, among them traffic enforcers
assigned at the reclamation area near SM Cebu, have identified Lacno as one of
the four persons who reportedly dragged Macairan to a waiting van.
The victim’s parents, Primitivo and
Virginia Macairan, personally went to BBRC and urge all jail officials not to
give Lacno special treatment.
Lacno earlier filed unlawful arrest
and arbitrary detention against SOS chief Roger James Brillantes, Cresencio and
three other policemen after he was placed under arrest at PRO 7 headquarters.
The Cebu City Prosecutor’s office,
however, dropped the charges after it found no sufficient basis to prosecute
the respondents.
(Garry A. Cabotaje)
