Friday, April 25, 2008 Arrogante kin want hearing in city
THE family of Daanbantayan businessman Renerio “Gogong” Arrogante III wants the hearing of the murder case they filed against Army sergeant Moises Ludoc held in Cebu City.
Renerio IV, son of the slain businessman, said their lawyer is currently preparing the needed pleadings for the transfer of the hearing venue from Bogo City, where the Regional Trial Court (RTC) exercising jurisdiction over Daanbayantan town is located.
He did not comment on whether their bid to transfer the hearing had something to do with politics in Daanbantayan.
Gogong ran for town councilor in the May 14 elections under the ticket of Augusto Corro, but lost. Corro ran against Mayor Sun Shimura, son of incumbent Vice Mayor Maria Luisa Loot.
Gogong was also allegedly the one who filed a bigamy case against Loot.
Involvement
The Loot family has strongly denied insinuations of involvement; Mayor Shimura has facilitated the allocation of a P50,000 reward for the unit who can crack the case.
The Office of the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor filed the murder case against Ludoc last April 19.
He was arrested in Mandaue City last April 16, a month and a week after the killing, after getting off a bus he boarded in Barangay Bateria, Daanbayan town.
Asset
An asset who had been tailing him for days went onboard the same bus and, while en route to Cebu City, fed information to a team from the National Bureau of Investigation that followed the bus when it passed by Danao City and another team that had been waiting for the bus to pass by in Mandaue.
Ludoc was armed with a .38 revolver but didn’t resist arrest. He was with his wife and two kids.
Sketch
Ludoc matched the image on the cartographic sketch NBI investigators, led by supervising agent Jose Ermie Monsanto, made of the killer based on the description of witnesses.
Ludoc, in an interview at the NBI stockade, denied the killing, saying he was in Negros Occidental when it happened.
He said he has been stationed at the 11th Infantry Battalion headquarters in Maruha, Barangay 9, Isabela, Negros Occidental since Jan. 22.
He added that his superior officers at Charlie Company can confirm that he was not in Cebu during the killing.
Although defense lawyer Nelson Mondigo questioned the validity of the NBI’s arrest, saying it was done without a warrant despite not meeting the conditions for a warrantless apprehension, they opted to raise this issue during trial proper.
