Monday, March 10, 2008 Short-lived freedom By Jovy S. Taghoy Sun.Star Staff Reporter
ARE the vigilantes back in Cebu City?
The question resurfaced yesterday following the death of a 32-year-old man who had just been released from jail for a drug-related case.
The death of Charles Siegbert “Berto” Bacatan, 32, of Barangay Camputhaw, happened two days after the murder of nursing student Ruby Jade Ruba, 20, by a robber out to get her cellular phone.
SPO1 Jay Yballe, Homicide Section chief investigator, said that although it is possible that vigilantes indeed killed Bacatan, he is more inclined to believe the incident was “drug-related.”
“But we are still investigating all angles in the killing,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
Bacatan was sitting on a stool close to a barbecue stand along Dr. Reyes St. in Upper Purok 3 and sending a text message when shot around 10:45 p.m.
Witnesses said one of two men riding a blue XRM motorcycle that passed by Bacatan and made a U-turn wore a dark jacket, eyeglasses and a crash helmet, and covered his face with a piece of cloth.
That man alighted from the motorcycle and walked toward Bacatan, whom he first shot in the right eyebrow.
When Bacatan slumped to the ground, the man finished him off with more shots to the head and body.
Witnesses
The victim left behind three children.
Residents milling in a basketball court near the crime scene recalled seeing unfamiliar men “going in and out” of the area as early as 7 p.m.
They also saw the two motorcycle-riding men, but told Sun.Star that they did not recognize them.
Yballe’s team, together with Scene of the Crime Operations (Soco) 7 personnel, found at the crime scene four .40 pistol shells and a deformed slug.
They also discovered a coin purse containing five plastic sachets of what appeared to be shabu and P20 in one of Bacatan’s pockets.
PNP7 medico-legal officer Benjamin Lara, who autopsied Bacatan, told Sun.Star Cebu that the victim died of two gunshot wounds each to the head and body.
Lara said he also recovered three bullet slugs, which appeared to have been fired from a pistol and a revolver.
He, however, said the slugs will still be submitted to the crime laboratory for examination.
If Bacatan’s death is proven to have been carried out by vigilantes, it will be the first case recorded this year.
Yballe’s team spoke with Bacatan’s wife, Tonette, who said the victim was released from the Cebu City Jail last Feb. 1 after an acquittal.
In 2007, the CCPO Homicide Section recorded at least four vigilante killings.
Since December 2004, more than 180 victims, most of whom were suspected criminals or had served jail terms, were gunned down vigilante-style.
Deadly walk
In a separate incident in Cebu City around 11 p.m. last Saturday, a tanod of the mountain barangay of Sudlon I, was also shot and killed.
PO3 Buenaventura Ursaiz Jr. identified the victim as Fermin M. Tulid Jr., 33, and the suspect as 36-year-old Hermogeniz N. Gabigas, a farmer from the neighboring barangay of Bonbon.
Gabigas allegedly attacked Tulid from behind while the victim, with his wife Zenaida and his son Gilbert, was walking in Sitio Morga on their way home.
Tulid was hit in the chest and died on the spot.
Immediately after the attack, Zenaida sought the assistance of Barangay Councilman Alimer Alik.
Initial investigation by the Homicide Section showed that the suspect held a grudge against the victim.
Tulid was reportedly behind the arrest of Gabigas for shooting another resident, identified as Peo Gabigas, last Aug. 13, 2007.
The victim served as one of the witnesses when the frustrated murder case was filed against Gabigas, who had vowed to kill him once he gets out of jail. (JST/With Lorna E. Jabuen of the University of the Philippines)
