Wednesday, May 21, 2008 Carcar police need witnesses
POLICE are now looking for witnesses who can shed light on the death of Allan Villegas Lapingcao last Monday.
SPO1 Meliton Agadier told Cebu Provincial Police Office Director Carmelo Valmoria that most of the people they talked with last Monday only saw Lapingcao down on the ground.
No one could say yet if the perpetrators had a getaway motorcycle, which is why, Agadier said, they were going to ask those living nearby if they noticed anything that day.
But if only roosters could talk, it would have been easy to figure out who the culprits were.
Lapingcao’s neighbors were having siesta when six to seven shots rang around 1 p.m.
Upholsterer Poche Razo, who was inside his house, thought they were just firecrackers. But commotion ensued.
On the street was Lapingcao’s bleeding body, with bullet holes.
Roosters
Not one from Sitio Awayan saw anything. Two roosters were the only ones around, caged near Razo’s house.
“Luckily, the area was really deserted, nobody else got hurt. It was lunchtime and everybody else was either sleeping or watching television,” Razo said.
But Lapingcao’s live-in partner Jennelyn Abordo had told police that Lapingcao told her that a certain Ryan Saducas of Barangay Liburon was out to get him.
Saducas has been tagged responsible for several shooting incidents in Barangay Liburon.
Abordo told Sun.Star Cebu that for a few weeks, Lapingcao kept talking about how Saducas had been looking for him.
“He said Ryan is after him but he didn’t say why,” Abordo said in Bisaya.
‘I’m leaving’
His last words to her were “I‘m leaving.”
She said Lapingcao left the house at about 10 a.m. to visit a friend in Awayan where he left his cellular phone and vitamins.
At past 3 p.m., Abordo again saw Lapingcao. This time though, he was at the Tupas Funeral Parlor, already dead.
Abordo could not make herself go inside the room where the corpse lay; she could only stare at the body from five meters away. She was silent for 30 seconds then started wailing.
She was asked to look closer so she could confirm if it was indeed Lapingcao. But the clothes Lapingcao had on were enough identification for Abordo.
They have been living together for two years and have a one-year-old daughter.
Records
Meanwhile, Valmoria said they were still looking for Lapingcao’s case folder to find out the circumstances of his release from jail.
Lapingcao was charged with multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder for the grenade blast that killed four women and wounded 27 others. No bail had been recommended.
The incident happened in September 1999 but he remained elusive. It was not until January 2000 that a massive police manhunt led to his arrest in Canlaon, Oriental Negros.
He was detained at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) last Feb. 1, 2000.
Aside from his cases as a result of the 1999 explosion, Lapingcao also faced cases for robbery and violation of Anti-Cattle Rustling Law of 1974.
Though police are yet to trace how he was released from jail, Agadier said there were reports that the case did not prosper because of lack of witnesses and that Lapingcao was later released.
Sun.Star Cebu learned that Lipangcao was released from the provincial jail last March 17, 2005 after the cases against him were either dismissed or he was acquitted.
Lapingcao originally hailed from Barili town but has been living in Sitio Lamacan, Barangay Valladolid, Carcar City where his common-law wife is from. (MEA/JGA with a report from GMD)
