Killers in kapitan’s slay convicted
JUSTICE may have taken long to come, but it has been served.
A decision of the Regional Trial Court of Baguio on October 6, 2011 sentencing four persons, all believed to be hired killers, to life imprisonment in connection with the slaying of the barangay chairman of Tambac, Malasiqui nine years ago.
Sentenced in the decision handed down by Judge Eduardo Claravall of Branch 60 in Baguio were Willie Mendoza, also known as “Wilfredo Mendoza” and “Samal”; Menard Ferrer, Dexter Gramata Ocumen, and Roderick “Pangal” de Guzman.
Claravall ordered the case to be archived as far as the the other accused were concerned, namely: Christian Centeno Sapira, a.k.a. “Asian”; and Bernardo Palisoc, a.k.a. “Nongnog” who remained at large up to the end of the trial.
All the accused were arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), except for Sapira and Palisoc.
The accused where charged in Criminal Case No. 26753-R for Murder with the Use of Unlicensed Firearm in connection with the treacherous slaying of Leonides Bulatao, a.k.a Leo Bulatao on December 10, 2003 in front of the Malasiqui municipal Hall.
The state witness was Rogelio Viray, a.k.a “Banong” of Pugaro, Dagupan City who turned against his co-conspirators in the crime.
Banong was with the group from the planning up to the actual killing of Bulatao.
Viray testified that the killing of Bulatao was planned in the house of Mendoza whom he tagged as their leader.
While Viray testified that Mendoza brought the group to the poultry farm of Alfie Soriano, now Liga ng mga Barangay president of Malasiqui, in Barangay Palapar, Malasiqui, riding in Mendoza’s green van as Soriano said he had a job for them, the judge did not include Soriano as among the suspects.
In his testimony Viray also showed there was a surveillance or an attempt of the accused, upon the instruction of Mendoza, to conduct a surveillance on Bulatao and that it was Mendoza who shot the victim from behind.
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