Wednesday, December 05, 2007 Kin of victims pour out anger
FAMILIES of drive-by shooting victims could not help but lash out at Aristotle Aves, who is the suspected gunman.
Liza Presbetiro and Aves’ mother Josie and his younger sister Buena Jay also argued, forcing the police to calm them down during a press conference yesterday morning.
Liza confronted Buena Jay for saying that Aves was not the one who shotLord Stephen Pasco Vasquez, William John Aznar and Laurence Morados last Oct. 4.
Aves, 26, just kept his head down as heated words were exchanged. But he denied involvement in the drive-by shootings, saying he was in Samar that time.
Liza is the wife of Eugene Presbetiro, who was gunned down last Sept. 21 in another fraternity-related incident.
She went to the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) yesterday and identified Aves as the one who killed her husband.
She was left to take care of four children. Liza was with her husband when the attack occurred.
Aves said in the press conference that he had been staying in Samar for some time after receiving information that the police was looking for him.
Clad in an orange T-shirt and jeans, Aves had bruises on the left side of his face when he was presented to the media, after his arrest last Monday night aboard an Ormoc City-bound vessel at Pier 8 in Mandaue City.
CCPO Director Patrocinio Comendador said the bruises were a result of a brief scuffle between the police team and Aves, who allegedly resisted arrest.
The Cebu City Government will release the P300,000 it offered as reward for the capture of Aves.
Reward
Mayor Tomas Osmeña said the amount will go to the informant who came to him weeks before Aves’ arrest.
“I gave him my cell phone, cell phone load, cash, but he did not know that there was a reward. Now, he’s going to be very rich,” the mayor said.
He declined to give any details on the identity of the informant for the person’s safety.
The mayor also said that “credit goes to (the) BO-PK (Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan) network” for making the informant come forward.
“I’m very grateful… (because) without the commitment of the people, this would not have happened,” he said.
When the person met him, Osmeña said not a single centavo was discussed in exchange for the information.
“It was only later when I told him of the reward,” he said.
Aves, a member of Alpha Kappa Rho (Akrho) fraternity, will be detained at the Cebu City jail in Barangay Kalunasan.
Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Ramon Codilla signed the commitment order for Aves to be held without bail.
Aves can later ask the court to grant him temporary release but he must convince the judge that the prosecution’s evidence against him is weak.
But even if bail is granted, his release won’t be automatic as he has a pending warrant for homicide signed by RTC Judge Simeon Dumdum.
Witness
The Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor is also expected to file additional charges against him for the Oct. 4 shootings at the downtown area.
A 17-year-old witness had identified Aves as the man who shot at the group of Lord Stephen Vasquez, William Aznar and Rendon Pellerin on Ascencion St. in Barangay Sambag 1 last Oct. 4. Vasquez and Aznar died. Pellerin also got hit but survived.
Another witness, an 18-year-old resident of Barangay Hipodromo, also executed an affidavit tagging Aves as the gunman in the shooting on V. Gullas St. that killed Morados, just a few minutes before the Sambag 1 incident.
In a separate interview, Vice Mayor Michael Rama thanked the police for the arrest. He also said it is now the role of the city prosecutors to do their part and “act with dispatch” on the cases against Aves.
“Arresting is one thing, prosecuting is another thing. And convicting (Aves) is the most important thing,” Rama said.
Aves was among the top 10 most wanted persons in Cebu City and ranked number one in the list of 10 most wanted fraternity members.
Defense
Akrho regional president Richard Buscaino, in an ABS-CBN TV Patrol Cebu report, said he was relieved that Aves is alive so that he will have the chance to defend himself in court.
Comendador said the arrest of Aves will solve the series of fraternity-related incidents and “it will be a contributing factor to the peace and order in the city.”
He said Task Force Aves led by Senior Insp. George Ylanan and supervised by Supt. Pablo Labra II employed all means to capture Aves.
The team went as far as Mindanao, particularly Davao City and Surigao to the southern towns of Cebu and to neighboring Leyte province.
Ylanan, in a separate interview, said the cash reward put up by the Cebu City Government was a vital factor in the operation, as information on Aves’ whereabouts started coming in.
Consuelo Aznar, Lermy Pasco and Bobby Morados, parents of those killed during the drive-by shootings, said they are grateful that Aves was finally arrested. Consuelo, however, said that if she had her way, she wanted to kill Aves right away.
As early as 7 a.m., the parents, together with the other family members and relatives, trooped to the CCPO in Camp Sotergo Cabahug to see Aves.
Consuelo and Lermy were hugging the big picture frames of their sons when they went to the police office.
Not him
Aves’ mother Josie, 50, however, lamented why the police linked all the killings to her son.
“Whatever the victims’ mothers are feeling, I feel it also,” she said in Cebuano.
Josie believes that Akrho’s rival fraternity Tau Gamma Phi is behind his arrest.
She also took exception to earlier reports that her son enjoyed the protection of some politicians.
Before noon yesterday, Aves was taken to the Palace of Justice to return the warrants of arrest against him and in return, Judge Sylva Aguirre-Paderanga and Judge Ramon Codilla Jr. issued separate commitment orders for him to be jailed at the Cebu City Jail.
The warrants were for murder and homicide cases.
Before he was taken to the city jail, Aves was brought to the Mandaue City Prosecutor’s Office for inquest proceedings for complaints of illegal possession of firearms and possession of shabu.
The .45 pistol with 12 rounds of ammunition and two magazines and packs of shabu were allegedly seized from Aves’ possession when he was arrested in Pier 8 in Mandaue. (JST/RHM/KNR)
