The Philippine Online Chronicles

One of the witnesses to the Maguindanao Massacre went missing from his quarters in Came Crame, Quezon City last Friday, but is now “in good hands” according to Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera.

Police Inspector Rex Diongon was group director of the 1508th Provincial Mobile Group in Maguindanao when the massacre occurred. He and seven other policemen were charged with serious neglect of duty and taken under restrictive custody and confinement at Camp Crame, to stand as witnesses in the ongoing Massacre trial and shed light on the killings.

Although not under arrest, Diongon was expected to regularly report to an officer in Camp Crame. On January 21, he asked for permission to leave for personal reasons but failed to report back the day after.

A manhunt was ordered after his disappearance, with Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Jesus Verzosa saying, “We have to check on the veracity of this report...we hope that nothing harmful has happened and we will look for him.”

Police in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) were alerted that Diongon might try to return to the region and were ordered to arrest him on sight.

In a news conference however, Devanadera announced that Diongon had been located and was now in the government’s custody although she did not name a specific department.

“We have checked and learned that he is in good hands, but beyond that I cannot give further details,” she said. “His testimony is very important.”

She also did not verify whether Diongon had escaped from his custodians on purpose.

According to ARMM Senior Superintendent Bienvenido Latag, Diongon had not escaped but had simply gone absent without official leave (AWOL).

Senior Superintendent Ericson Velasquez, chief investigator of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), mentioned that Diongon had merely gone to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to file some documents, but did not elaborate.

The Mindanao Examiner also reported that police were verifying a conflicting report that Diongon had gone to Iloilo to get married.