The Cagayan Valley Regional Police on Thursday filed complaints against two colleagues and a relative of slain National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Randy Malayao for taking evidence related to his killing the past week.

The complaints stemmed from the seizure of Malayao’s laptop and six cellphones that were vital in the investigation by his sibling Perla Upano, provincial board member Edu Balgos, and a certain Rina Balgos.

Authorities lodged complaints for obstruction of justice, grave coercion and grave threat against the trio after the personal belongings of Malayao were allegedly taken from police custody.

Malayao was shot dead inside a bus in Nueva Vizcaya last 30 January. The assailant escaped on board a motorcycle driven by a cohort.

While investigations were being conducted, Mrs. Balgos allegedly demanded to observe the inventory of the crime scene and insinuated that officers may plant evidence according to the affidavit submitted by Chief Insp. Giovanni Cejes, the former head of the Aritao police.

Cejes said Balgos continued her tirades even after he explained that authorities are following standard operating procedure in the investigation and noted that she mistakenly assumed that policemen in the area were members of the Military Intelligence Group.

Upano, on the other hand, soon after came to the police station and refused to sign a consent form for police to examine her slain sibling’s gadgets, said Cejes, recounting that Upano later handed her a phone, over which he talked to Mr. Balgos — a provincial board member — who allegedly yelled at him that he had no right to withhold Malayao’s belongings.

“He was outrageous in telling me that I was committing a human right violation and that I am ignorant of what I was doing,” Cejes said.

Mrs. Balgos also asked him if he wanted to summoned by Congress, he said.

Cejes said he “reluctantly” released Malayao’s belongings due to “undue pressure.”

The items, he said, could have been “very instrumental in unfolding the truth” and that their loss left police “empty handed” in their investigation.

Cejes and the chief of the Nueva Vizcaya province were removed from their posts for supposed negligence in handling the evidence.

Cagayan Valley police director Chief Supt. Jose Mario Espino has asked the help of Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año’s in retrieving Malayao’s personal belongings.

Police also reviewed security measures with bus operators.

Malayao, formerly among the leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines in Cagayan Valley, was arrested in Cainta, Rizal in 2008.

He was accused and later acquitted of involvement in the 2001 killing of Cagayan Rep.

Rodolfo Aguinaldo, a former military officer and prominent anti-communist campaigner.

Before peace talks between the government and the NDFP collapsed in 2017, Malayao attended the negotiations in Europe.