IN CANDONI
Pa draws 18 years
for raping daughter

A resident of Candoni, Negros Occidental, was meted 18 years maximum imprisonment for raping his 15-year-old daughter, while a slaughterhouse worker from Kabankalan City charged with arson was acquitted, by the Kabankalan City Regional Trial Court.

Judge Henry Arles found guilty beyond reasonable doubt Ernesto Aplacador and sentenced him to a minimum of 14 and a maximum of 18 years in jail, for molesting his daughter, in September 2002.

Aplacador was ordered by the court to indemnify the offended party the amount of P50,000, and to pay the costs. Aplacador pleaded guilty to the offense. The court said the plea was voluntary on his part and was not made through threats or intimidation, or induced by any prize or reward.

The defense and the prosecution had entered into a plea bargaining agreement, the court said. The court also ordered him to be immediately remitted to the National Penitentiary.

Meanwhile, Arles acquitted Kabankalan resident Moreto Balao, then 51, of arson charges filed against him by Joacquin Sola, on February 2004.

Sola claimed that Balao set on fire his nipa hut located at Sitio Mojon, Brgy. Binicuil, Kabankalan, on Sept. 28, 2003.

Eduardo Cordero, overseer of the complainant, who testified for the prosecution, said he saw Balao setting fire to the nipa hut of Sola, when he came to get the spade he had left in the place. Balac, however, said he was just being framed because Sola had cut the ipil-ipil trees beside his house without his permission, and he had it entered in the police blotter of Brgy. Binicuil.

The defense presented the testimonies of Jasmin Martelino, and Moreto Balao.

The court said there appears to be a deep-seated enmity between the complainant and the accused, before the filing of the arson case, and that Sola must have been displeased when Balao reported his cutting of the ipil-ipil trees on Jan. 13, 2003. Moreover, Arles said Cordero cannot be considered a disinterested witness, he being the overseer of the complainant. The defense of alibi appears to be established by a credible witness, in contrast to the shaky and suspicious proofs of the prosecution, the court said.*GCT

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Chief of police, cop
nabbed for killing former detainee

ILOILO CITY - The chief of police and another policeman of Laua-an town in Antique have been arrested for the killing of a former detainee of the town's police station.

Insp. Jovencio Urbien Jr. and PO1 Randy Dalumpines were arrested late Thursday for the murder of Jerry Samsona, based on a warrant issued by the Barbaza Municipal Circuit Trial Court, said Senior Supt. Isagani Cuevas, Police Regional Office-6 deputy regional director for operations and chief of the regional intelligence division.

Urbien and Dalumpines have been disarmed and detained at the police station of the capital town of San Jose. Administrative charges for grave offenses are also being readied against them.

Cuevas said four members of the town's police force have testified that Dalumpines shot Samsona in front of the town hall on the evening of Sept. 22.

Urbien, Dalumpines and PO2 Ernesto Elican then transported the wounded Samsona in the station's patrol vehicle. The policemen said they thought that Samsona would be brought to a hospital.

Cuevas said Elican testified that, along the way, Urbien ordered Dalumpines to finish off Samsona and "hide" the body.

The body of the victim was found with multiple gunshot wounds on Sept. 24 in a river in Barangay Durog in San Jose, 54 km south of Laua-an.

Samsona, 36, who was reportedly suffering from a nervous breakdown was last seen at the Laua-an police station on Sept. 22 or two days before his remains was discovered. He failed to return home in Barangay Bongbongan in Laua-an that day.

The victim had been detained at the police station several years ago for destruction of property.

Witnesses, including Elican, PO3 Jimarco Aquirre, PO2 John Guno, and PO1 Sammy Robles said Dalumpines shot the victim after Samsona threw a fit inside the police station and shouted invectives at the policemen.

The policemen had tried to pacify Samsona by putting him inside the detention cell but he continued shouting invectives after he was released.

Dalumpines and the four policemen who testified against him and Urbien were earlier disarmed and relieved from their posts after the discovery of Samsona's remains.

But Cuevas said they will still continue their investigation on the motive for Samsona's killing. Paraffin tests conducted on the Dalumpines and the four policemen turned negative but Cuevas said the results are inconclusive. Investigators are still waiting for results of ballistic tests conducted on the policemen's firearms.*NPB

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