On February 10, 2017, a day after the Philippine National Police announced they had arrested members of a vigilante group in Tondo, Manila, The Philippine Star reported that police had already filed criminal charges against six men for the death of 16-year-old Charlie Saladaga.
Three men had already been arrested during the raid on the Confederate Sentinels Group's (CSG?s) outpost: Alfredo Alejan Jr, Marco Morallos, and Manuel Murillo.
They pointed a finger at their leader, Ricardo Villamonte, alias "Commander Maning."
Commander Maning, along with Barangay 105 councilman Michael Sibucao, and a third man known only by the alias "Onic," remained at large at the time charges were filed.
According to the affidavit of apprehension filed by the Manila Police District?s homicide section, ?a hot pursuit was immediately conducted.?
Rappler?s sources in the community said there was no visible attempt at pursuit, as the three men continued to live freely in Village 105.
On February 15, the Office of the City Prosecutor asked police to conduct preliminary investigations against the missing men.
Commander Maning, Sibucao, and Onic were subpoenaed to appear at the Manila City Hall on April 20 to testify under oath ?and answer clarificatory questions.?
On the day of their subpoena, Charlie Saladaga's mother Cristina filed a document retracting her sworn statement, including the complaint of murder and kidnapping she filed against men who had already confessed to the assassination of her son.
In her affidavit of withdrawal, Cristina explained that she had been "thinking repeatedly about the events? leading up to Charlie?s death. She asked to ?dismiss all charges of kidnapping with homicide and murder? against all the men implicated.
She said she had come to realize that the entire complaint was the result of ?a misunderstanding.?
It was Simon, a self-confessed vigilante from CSG Tondo Chapter 2, who told Rappler that a group of ranking police officials gave CSG Tondo Chapter 2 the mandate to kill.
?We wouldn't do this without their blessing,? said Simon. "But this had their blessing."
One day in 2016, said Simon, a number of their members were called to a briefing early in the drug war. It was at that meeting that police officers explained to the chapter?s new recruits that their mission was to kill "those with bounties and the ones involved in drugs.?
It was a meeting that may have occurred in the CSG Inc headquarters. Simon described the location as ?a small office? located ?near Sangandaan.?
Directions to reporters seeking an interview with CSG Inc director Alvin Constantino included meeting CSG guides at a McDonald?s branch ?at the end of Tandang Sora going to Quirino Highway, Sangandaan.? The office in Sitio Campo Uno, whose exact location cannot be found on GPS maps, is a few minutes away off a winding one-way road into the Constantino compound.
While Constantino admitted that members of CSG Tondo Chapter 2 have visited his office at the same time as police officials, Constantino doubted an order to kill could have been announced inside the headquarters. ?The PNP wouldn?t do that in front of the other members there,? he said, ?especially because there were also women and older CSG members. I don?t think the PNP would say that.?
Alvin Constantino remains the national director of officials of the CSG Inc, although he is in the process of having the name officially changed to Confederate Sentinels of God. His Facebook account still banners his photo side by side with a laughing former police chief Ronald dela Rosa.
Constantino said the alleged violence committed by CSG Tondo Chapter 2 in no way reflects the values of the national organization he founded.
In June 2017, four months after the PNP accused the organization of abduction and murder, Constantino received a letter from the National Police Commission. It certified that ?the Confederate Sentinels Group, Incorporated, headed by Mr. Alvin Constantino, is a partner NGO of the Philippine National Police.?
The CSG, said Constantino, remains an accredited partner of the Manila Police District.
Constantino said the police never explained how CSG Tondo Chapter 2 came to be accused of murder.
If they are guilty, Constantino said, they are a rogue organization whose actions have nothing to do with the national volunteer organization. ?I thought about it, if they were vigilantes, who gave them orders? Wasn?t it the PNP who introduced them to us? What does that imply??
Police Superintendent Robert Domingo, whom Rappler sources accused of outsourcing murder to the CSG, is attending to his education at the Philippine National Police Academy. He has refused to comment on this story.
On October 9, 2018, as this series was being published, the House of Representatives recommended the filing of "appropriate" charges against police officers of Manila Police District in Station 1, Raxabago, where Domingo was station commander at the time of Charlie Saladaga's death.
According to the House, a jail cell hidden behind a bookshelf inside the station in April 2017 was "beyond humane conditions."
Vigilantes interviewed by Rappler said Domingo was, by no means, the mastermind of what they claimed was the outsourcing of extrajudicial killings.
?He?s just a tool for Tondo,? said self-confessed vigilante Angel. ?There?s someone higher than him. There?s a general involved. We were supposed to meet with him. We were told, ?You?re being called by the general.? It was some sort of briefing. But that?s all I know, because when we were about to go meet the general the whole thing was called off.?
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