Japanese police seeks RP police assistance to solve 12-year-old murder case in Tokyo

By Ronron
July 18, 2007

The Japanese police started on Wednesday seeking the help of the Philippine National Police (PNP) for it to solve a 12-year-old murder case in Tokyo, which involved a Philippine-made gun.

Five Japanese policemen met with an official of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) yesterday morning and was given the assurance by the latter of its assistance.

“We will assist them as long as it is within our capabilities, without violating our laws here, and our protocol. But of course, we need their formal request before we could perform,” Sr. Supt. Christopher Laxa, Assistant Division Chief for Intelligence of the CIDG, told Manila Shimbun in an interview after the meeting.

Laxa said the Japanese policemen asked their Philippine counterparts to help them locate three to four Filipinos who could provide information about the case.

“They are witnesses who hopefully can provide them information vital to their filing of cases,” Laxa said of the Filipinos the Japanese cops want to interview.

He said these Filipinos, who are from provinces outside of Metro Manila, were in Japan when the crime happened in 1995.

The case is about the killing of three Japanese women, two of whom are high school students, while they were inside the office of a supermarket. The caliber 45 used by the suspect was discovered to have been made in the Philippines.

Laxa said he expects to receive the official request of the Japanese police in the middle of August. He explained that the Japanese Embassy will have to file its request before the Department of Foreign Affairs, which will in turn endorse the request to the PNP leadership.

“We are waiting for the diplomatic request from them… If we get it, we will assist them in pursuing the leads they told us. They said they just wanted to interview,” Laxa said.

He clarified, however, that they cannot force the Filipino witnesses to speak if they do not want to.

There is also no need for him to create a special team to assist the Japanese cops, he said.

The five Japanese policemen were accompanied yesterday during the meeting by the First Secretary of the Japanese Embassy in Manila./DMS