MANILA, Philippines – So what if he was a robber? He stole because of poverty.

This was the way Rosalinda Cadavero described her brother, Ricky Cadavero (alias Kambal), the alleged leader of a notorious robbery gang based in Ozamis who was shot dead by his police escorts on Monday, July 15.

The 37-year-old Dubai-based Rosalinda flew to Manila upon hearing the news of her younger brother’s death, and defended him in the media.

“My brother is not so bad. Even if he were a robber he was a good person on the inside. He just stole because of poverty,” she told reporters.

She also insisted her bother was murdered, contesting the story of the police that Ricky had tried to grab his police escorts’ guns thus forcing them to shoot him.

“It’s painful. I know my brother. They killed him. He was handcuffed, his hands behind his back. They shot my brother,” she said.

Rosalinda added in Filipino: “Why didn’t they just put him in prison and investigate him there? My brother died a thief but he doesn’t even have any money to his name,” she said. “Who is benefitting from the supposed millions he  had stolen? I have to pay for my brother’s burial. Where is the money they are saying he had taken?”

She said she spoke to her brother over the phone just before he died, and said Ricky “did not hide anything from me.”

What ambush?

Cadavero and his sidekick Wilfredo Panogalinga, alias Kulot, were killed in an alleged ambush in San Pedro, Laguna, hours after they were presented to the media in Camp Crame as re-captured convicts who earlier escaped from prison. They should have been on their way to New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa.

The regional police’s version of what happened was this: armed men on board motorycles tried to rescue the two, who then reportedly grabbed the firearms of their escorts. This prompted other policemen to reportedly fire at their captives, killing them.

The slay raised questions, prompting Interior Secretary Mar Roxas to call for an investigation. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has also ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to probe the incident.

Rosalinda is not the only one questioning the incident as narrated by the police.

A 16-year-old teenage boy also surfaced as an eyewitness on Wednesday, July 17, and told investigators he did not see any motorcycles on the scene when the shooting happened.

According to the boy tagged as Michael, two other cars blocked the van carrying Cadavero and Panogalinga. Shots were fired as soon as the van arrived, he told probers.

This contradicts an initial report of the regional police office, which said alleged fellow gang members on board motorcycles started shooting at the van purportedly to try to rescue the two.

Chief Supt Benito Estipona, regional director of Calabarzon, Supt Danilo Mendoza, head of the PNP regional special operations group in the same region, and 13 other policemen have since been relieved by the Philippine National Police pending investigation. – with reports from Edwin Llobrera/Rappler.com