Sunday, June 24, 2007 Davao village chief charged with parricide
THE City Prosecutor's Office charged a barangay chairman accused of killing his wife in Tamugan, Calinan, Davao City in February, this year.
Investigating prosecutor Victoriano M. Bello Jr. recommended the parricide charges against barangay chairman Renie Cadayday Lim of Tamugan in Calinan for killing his wife Elvira at around 11 p.m. of February 2.
Bello found probable cause to hold Lim for court trial based on the medico-legal and physical reports of the ballistic examination and other circumstantial instances.
Records showed that Elvira was last seen alive by her sister Agnes Tambis.
In her affidavit, Tambis said in the evening of February 2, they went to Villa Cristina at Sitio Malagos in Baguio district to celebrate the victim's birthday.
After the party, she said, they boarded Lim's Isuzu DMax pick-up with the couple and went to Network Bank in Calinan, because Lim wanted to withdraw some money.
Tambis claimed that while when they were at the bank, Lim told her to transfer to another vehicle with their driver and helper were onboard.
Not sensing anything wrong with the couple going on their own, she left with the driver and helper, and proceeded to the couple's house in Tamugan.
It was very much later that day when she received information, saying the couple was ambushed on their way home.
She then went to Isaac T. Robillo Memorial Hospital in Calinan where she was told that her sister was declared dead in arrival.
Police investigators suspect Lim was lying when his statement and those of hospital personnel attending him and his wife regarding his possession of a handgun did not match.
Police Officers Charlito Bertolfo and Pedro Gorre of the Marilog police claimed that as soon as they received information about the ambush, they proceeded to the crime scene to conduct investigation and then went to the Davao Doctor's Hospital after being told that the victim was brought there.
They were informed by the village chief that they were ambushed by two unidentified men on their way home.
He added that he fired back at the attackers using his .45 caliber pistol placed behind his seat.
The following day, Bertolfo and Gorre returned to the crime scene and conducted further investigation.
They found skid marks on the roadway of the ambush site and recovered four empty shells of caliber .45 pistol.
When police traced the tire tracks, they noticed that the vehicle apparently swerved off the road toward the left, destroying some banana hills, and then back to the "ambush site."
The vehicle returned before being ambushed raised more suspicion, as this was "very unusual," the police said.
The two also claimed that in their second interview with the accused, the village chief denied possessing a handgun at the time of the incident.
Other witnesses, who executed their affidavits, confirmed that when he brought his wife to the hospital, he was holding a silver colored handgun.
Moreover, when he was invited to the Investigation and Detection Division of the Davao City Police Office, he was in possession of a handgun that was confiscated by the police in violation of the election gun ban.
The confiscated gun was a Llama brand .45 caliber pistol while the mission order recovered from his possession was for a Colt Pistol .45 caliber.
Lim is currently out on bail for the case of violation of the election gun ban. (RMH)
