PULIDO, BRAGANZA, CHAN IMPLICATED

LINGAYEN—A 17-year old boy, deeply mired in politics and crime, is singing a different tune this time.

Justin Aquino, placed under the Witness Protection Program for implicating Governor Amado Espino Jr. and First District Rep. Jesus Celeste in the murder of Infanta Mayor Ruperto Martinez in December 15 last year, has recanted his testimonies and is now pointing at their political opponents as those who plotted to implicate them in the crime.

Now under the protective custody of the Municipal Social Welfare Office in Lingayen, Aquino of Bayambang came forward after allegedly escaping  from his guards  at  dawn of Nov. 25  in Camp Crame at where he was being kept while  under the Witness Protection Program.

At a press conference at the President’s Hotel in Lingayen noon of Thursday assisted by lawyers from the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), he announced the withdrawal of his previous statement to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Manila naming Espino and Celeste as the brains behind the slaying of Martinez.

He also asked forgiveness from the family of the late mayor, his wife Cristanta, sons Marvin and Richard who are now a councilor and Mayor of Infanta, respectively, and Jennifer, wife of Richard, who were all present at the press conference.

The Martinezes said they believed all along that Aquino was not telling the truth when he implicated Espino and Celeste as the masterminds in the slaying of the late mayor.

The family said they believe that the two suspects, identified as Ricardo Legarda and Richard Manuel, arrested by the police a day after the murder and are still in custody, are the real killers.

Aquino told newsmen in Filipino, “I was bothered by my conscience no end. I could not sleep. I longed to be united with my family.”

In the press conference, Aquino said he succumbed to pressure to implicate Espino and Celeste who were both running for re-election at that time.

He said the affidavit he signed was prepared by lawyer Leonido ‘Bodie’ Pulido, a candidate who lost to Celeste.

The teen also claimed that former Alaminos Mayor Hernani Braganza, who ran against Espino, and one Manuel Tolentino, a defeated candidate for mayor in Alcala, had a hand in the preparation of the document executed by Aquino.

He also mentioned the name of Police Provincial Director Marlou Chan as being part of the planning but did not give any details about the latter’s presence in any of the alleged meetings but merely pointed to Chan’s presence in all all hearings conducted by the NBI and the Department of Justice.

Aquino’s original statement described how he witnessed the planning of the killing of Martinez by Espino and Celeste during a meeting attended by his father Jaime Aquino at the resort of Celeste in Bolinao.

The elder Aquino, a local newspaper publisher, is also one of the respondents in the complaint filed by the NBI with the DOJ

ABSURD

Contacted for comment, Chan said  “I never met or saw the boy in my life.”

“I was not even the provincial director when the killing happened,” Chan told The PUNCH in a phone interview last Friday.

Pulido, meanwhile, said in an interview over a local television program that the new claim of Aquino is “absurd and unbelievable”.

He added that he is worried about the condition of the teen witness’ welfare.

“Baka po siya ang tinatakot at iniipit ngayon,” Pulido said.

“I want to know under whose custody is the child now? Who called the presscon? Who were with him during the presscon?,” Pulido said.

He said there is a Court of Appeals decision giving the child’s custody to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

“So whoever is now taking custody of the child would be violating a court decision,” he warned.

Braganza could not be reached for comment as of presstime

ESCAPE

Aquino also recounted how he escaped from the Special Action Force at Camp Crame at dawn of Nov. 25.

He claimed he easily slipped out from his room when his guards were drunk. And when he was intercepted at Gate 3 of Camp Crame and asked where he was going, he said he wanted to buy something from an adjacent convenience store.

From Camp Crame, Aquino boarded a taxi to Cubao and alighted at the terminal of the Dagupan Bus where he took a bus going to Dagupan City using the allowance that was being given to him.–with reports from Eva Vispera and Johanne R. Macob

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