Thursday, January 08, 2004
Cops charge Cordova house-sitter with murder
By Oscar C. Pineda
POLICE yesterday charged with double murder a house-sitter who shot dead two “robbers” in Cordova, Cebu.
Contrary to the house-sitter’s claim, witnesses alleged the victims were even with him shortly before the Dec. 30 incident, so they couldn’t have been intruders.
Cordova Police Chief Alberto Abing charged Paterno Jumao-as Ocoy, 21, for the killing of Edgardo A. Borinaga, 33, and Erolano B. Escala Jr., 19, last Dec. 30, residents of Barangay Gabi, Cordova town.
Intruders
Ocoy told the police that Escala and Borinaga were intruders and were stealing the TV set in the two-story house.
Escala tried to shoot him but he was able to wrestle the gun and shoot the robbers dead.
But the police doubted that Borinaga and Escala were intruders.
They were suspicious of Ocoy’s account, especially when neighbors said they saw the suspect and the victims walking together towards the house in Barangay Gabi prior to the shooting.
The police’s suspicion was confirmed as autopsy reports revealed that, aside from the gunshot wounds, both victims’ bodies bore two stab wounds each in the face.
Abing found it unbelievable that Ocoy did not sustain even a scratch in his body when he fought off the two.
Account
Ocoy allegedly confronted the two victims inside the house of ship captain Restituto Sablas in Sitio Camino, Barangay Gabi in the afternoon of Dec. 30.
Upon his surrender, Ocoy told the police that he left the house that day around noon.
When he returned to the house three hours later, Borinaga and Escala were in the living room carrying a television set, so he immediately confronted them.
A struggle ensued, leading to the killing.
Ocoy immediately went to Sablas home in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City and returned to the police around 6 p.m., already with a lawyer, to surrender.
But the victims were not intruders, some witnesses said.
Moises Baba, 66, who lives some 55 meters from the house, said in his affidavit that around 2 p.m. that day, he saw Ocoy, Borinaga and Escala enter the house through the main gate.
Baba said the three, before entering the house, even had a drinking spree at the billiards hall of Ricardo Tirol.
Another witness, Dan Michael Tiro confirmed Baba’s statement, saying he was there when the group was drinking .
(January 8, 2004 issue)
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