THE Sandiganbayan has cleared former Cebu second district congressman Crisologo “Sol” Abines of the homicide case filed against him for the 1999 shooting of a former military man inside a local cockpit in Santander, Cebu.
But the anti-graft court’s third division convicted two of Abines’ three co-accused - policeman Roque Paras and barangay captain Jose Cortes.
The two were also asked to pay Bureros’ family moral and compensatory damages.
Military man Pompeo Bureros was shot dead last March 21, 1999 inside a cockpit in Santander’s Barangay Looc.
Paras, the actual triggerman, was sentenced to suffer imprisonment of eight to 14 years while Cortes, as “accomplice to the consummated crime of homicide,” gets two years and four months to eight years and one day.
But nobody will be sent to jail yet.
Paras and Cortes, both out on bail, intend to appeal the ruling.
“We’ve always been confident of an acquittal. It was very clear that he was innocent. Unfortunately, the lawyers of the prosecution service didn’t see it that way,” said Frank Malilong, Abines lawyer and spokesperson.
But damage had already been done, he said.
Malilong said Abines “suffered much” from the case and lost not only a fortune but also his political career.
“They really succeeded in demonizing Sol Abines. But I never doubted that he would get his vindication. How can he be guilty when he even got shot?” Malilong said.
Aida Bureros, widow of Bureros, also intends to file a motion for reconsideration over the acquittal.
Bureros, flanked by fellow members of the Crusade Against Violence (CAV), burst into tears when the dispositive portion of the ruling was read in the presence of Associate Justices Godofredo Legaspi, Efren de la Cruz and Norberto Geraldez in Manila.
CAV president Thelma Chiong said the group believes the public prosecutor was able to present clear proof that Abines, who was present in the cockpit during the shooting and even got nicked in the butt, masterminded the incident.
And while the group is thankful of the convictions, it’s a “hollow victory” with the “mastermind roaming free.”
The legal battle spanned three years in court and, before that, three years under preliminary investigation.
It was marred by the Sandiganbayan 3rd Division’s flip-flopping over the issuance of a warrant that would have sent all four accused to jail for the entire duration of the trial had it not downgraded the case to simple homicide, thus making bail possible.
The 3rd Division was then presided over by Associate Justice Anacleto Badoy.
At the time he was shot, Bureros was chief security officer of a fishing company co-owned by former Oslob Mayor Regino Abines and his late elder brother, Emiliano. The firm supposedly rivaled one that Crisologo owned.
According to five witnesses, Crisologo, with his bodyguards, shot and killed Bureros.
The National Bureau of Investigations (NBI), then under the command of director Florencio Villarin, took cognizance of the incident almost immediately, while the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas launched a fact-finding investigation on the administrative aspect of the incident.
Five days after the shooting, four of the five witnesses backed out, while two of the suspects suddenly disappeared.
The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas nevertheless filed a criminal case for murder, alleging that all four accused - Abines, bodyguard Romeo Ganad, policeman Paras and barangay captain Cortes - connived in the killing.
The case dragged on for years after the defense panel questioned the decision of then Ombudsman Aniano Desierto to file the charge.
The anti-graft office, after three reviews, refused to buy the claim that Paras was only acting in defense of Abines, whom Bureros allegedly shot in the buttock.
It also ruled that there was connivance among the four when Cortes and Ganad pinned down Bureros while Paras aimed and fired his weapon at the victim, killing him instantly.
But when a warrant of arrest was finally issued against the four in June 2002, Badoy issued a ruling downgrading the findings of murder to homicide.
It said there was no evident premeditation, a necessary element in murder cases, when the shooting happened. He later recalled his own warrant but reissued it again.
Abines and his co-accused didn’t get arrested. They surrendered to the Regional Trial Court in Cebu City and posted bail at P40,000 each after knowing that a warrant was once again issued.
They then pleaded not guilty when they were finally arraigned in November of 2003.
