Friday, October 31, 2008 Two DA execs tagged in Esperat slay elude arrest By Malu C. Manar Correspondent
KIDAPAWAN CITY -- Police in Cotabato City have failed to serve the warrants for the arrest of two ranking agriculture officials in Central Mindanao who were implicated in the killing of a journalist in Sultan Kudarat sometime in 2005.
Cotabato City Police Director Willie Dangane said the two DA Central Mindanao officials could have left the city after learning that warrants would be served against them.
DA Central Mindanao finance director Osmena Montaner and accountant Estrella Sabay have been accused of masterminding the killing in 2005 of Marlene Garcia-Esperat, a columnist of a weekly paper in Tacurong City.
Earlier, Judge Melanio Guevarra of the Regional Trial Court in Tacurong City issued a new warrant for the arrest of the officials after the Department of Justice ordered their persecution following an extensive review of the Esperat’s murder case.
Before Esperat's death, she disclosed alleged fund anomalies in her column. She named the two as among those involved in the scam.
She was gunned down on Maundy Thursday in 2005 in front of her children inside their residence in Tacurong City by three men who escaped from the scene on board motorcycles.
"They are no longer here in the City," Dangane told reporters.
Members of the patrol team Dangane sent to serve the warrants for the arrest of Sabay and Montañer returned empty-handed.
Three of several suspects in the killing of Esperat, Gerry Cabagay, Randy Grecia and Estanislao Bismanos, were earlier sentenced to life imprisonment for their role in her murder.
