Thursday, October 23, 2003
Casino ‘financier’ denies involvement in Salabas slay
SENIOR Supt. Vicente Ponteras, provincial police director, said the name of Casino Filipino financier Manolo Escalante, the latest to be tagged in the Salabas-Suganob-Lumoljo multiple kidnap-slay case never cropped up in their investigation.
Ponteras said Escalante came to his office Wednesday and questioned why his name is being implicated to the killings of former Barangay Pahanocoy village head Eleuterio “Dodong” Salabas and his companions, 2nd Mate Ricardo Suganob, a Maritime instructor from Cagayan de Oro City and Maximo Lumoljo, of Misamis Occidental.
Escalante, of Sta. Clara Subdivision, Bacolod said even the lone witness of the National Bureau of Investigation, Luisito Gersaniba Sr., of Barangay Banago, Bacolod did not mention him as one of the masterminds or involved in the slay.
Last Oct. 16, Salabas’ widow, Dr. Elizabeth Orola-Salabas, filed an amended complaint implicating Escalante to the slay before the Municipal Circuit Trial Court in Guihulngan, Negros Oriental.
Gersaniba, on the other hand, earlier tagged to the killings Senior Insp. Clarence Dongail, former commander of the Bacolod City Police Office.
NBI operatives led by Lawyer Celso Estorga arrested Dongail, now restricted at the BCPO compound, on the evening of Oct. 3.
As to who is the real mastermind behind the slay, the public is already “confused,” said Ponteras adding “I don’t know what is the basis of Mrs. Salabas in filing the charges. In our own investigation, Escalante’s name never cropped up.”
Ponteras believes though that Mrs. Salabas also has evidence to prove her allegations.
He added that with Escalante now included in the charges, it would turn out that the latter, not Dongail, is the mastermind in the killings.
“But I do not question the wisdom of the NBI in filing the case,” he clarified.
The counsel of family Salabas, Lawyer Renecio Espiritu, earlier challenged Escalante to prove his innocence in court.
“The more suspects, the merrier,” Espiritu stated.
In her affidavit, Salabas’ widow said in several occasions, Escalante personally and over the telephone castigated and berated her husband for the latter’s failure to pay his debt to Escalante amounting to P300,000 with two percent interest per day.
However, Escalante, in a press conference Wednesday, told the media that Salabas owe him only P70,000 and the late village head should have paid the remaining blance of P30,000 a week before he was declared missing.
He further said he is only one of at least six financiers at the Casino Filipino.
Aside from him, Escalante revealed that Salabas also borrowed money from financiers whom he identified only as a certain Rommel, Debulgado and Catal.
Asked about the case, Escalante’s counsel, Lawyer Jam Angudong, said his client has no involvement in the killings.
He dismissed the allegations as mere “speculations” and not based on personal knowledge.
“Of course they will not admit. They have all the rights to deny everything but they must prove the innocence of his client in court,” countered Escalante’s counsel.
Espiritu further disclosed that the warrant of arrest against Escalante will come out after the preliminary examination in the Guihulngan MCTC on November 12.
As to Escalante’s implication a vindication on his part, Dongail refused to give any statement.
The three victims were shot on their heads.
They were declared missing on the evening of August 31.
Two days after, Suganob’s body was found in Lag-asan Beach, Bago City while that of Lumoljo’s, on the next day, ina another beach resort.
Salabas’ decomposed body was found September 19 by the shore in Barangay Punta Buri, Ajuy, Iloilo.
(October 23, 2003 issue)
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