By Tara Yap
ILOILO CITY—A fugitive former police officer and the subject of the controversial raid of the Iloilo City Police Office-Molo Police Station on July 1 surrendered on Sunday, July 5.
The suspect, Police Corporal Jerry Villanueva, turned himself in to Police Regional Office-6 chief Police Brig. Gen. Randulf T. Tuaño at 12:45 a.m. in Camp Delgado, the PRO-6 headquarters here. Villanueva surrendered two guns.
“Nagpasya siyang sumuko dahil gusto na niyang harapin ang kanyang kaso upang matapos na ang problemang kanyang kinakaharap. Ang mahalaga ay mapayapa nating naipatupad ang warrant of arrest at maiharap siya sa hukuman nang naaayon sa batas,” said Tuaño.
Villanueva and another police officer are facing murder and theft charges filed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) over the January 2020 shooting here where drug suspect Allen Muller and businessman Delfin Britanico, the son of the late Iloilo Rep. Salvador “Buddy” Britanico, were killed.
Villanueva was assigned to the City Drug Enforcement Unit (CDEU) of the ICPO at that time.
The suspect surrendered days after the controversial raid by the Philippine National Police-Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (PNP-IMEG) at the Iloilo City Police Office-Molo Police Station.
The PNP-IMEG allegedly disarmed on-duty cops as they searched for Villanueva who was nowhere to be found.
Operating lawmen allegedly pointed their firearms towards civilians, including a barangay captain and a member of the media, who were at the police station.
