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Wednesday, April 16, 2003
9mm shells match gun of one suspect
CEBU -- The 9 mm empty shells found at the scene where suspected drug trader Edwin Pabia was shot dead came from the handgun of murder suspect Emerlito Reyes.
But the recovered shells and a slug of a .45 pistol were fired from another gun, not from the .45 handgun seized from the second suspect, Wilson Diabordo.
These were the results of the ballistic tests conducted by PNP Crime Laboratory 7 ballistician Zosimo Duyogan.
As this developed, Mayor Arturo Radaza Tuesday suspended both Reyes, 46, and Diabordo, 34, from City Hall as transportation consultant and job-order contractual employee.
City Attorney Joseph Lim revealed that Reyes, the city consultant on transport and public conveyance affairs, has been ordered suspended for six months.
Lim said Diabordo is considered having been kicked out as his suspension already covered the remaining period of his contract.
From the Lapu-Lapu City Police Station, the two suspects, who have been charged with "murder aggravated with the use of unlicensed gun," were transferred to the city jail in Barangay Mactan at 11:20 a.m. Tuesday.
The illegal possession of firearms charge was absorbed as an aggravating circumstance in the murder case.
Acting City Prosecutor Evangeline Gicale said the case of Reyes and Diabordo is non-bailable.
Lapu-Lapu City Homicide Chief Geoffrey Baguio said, however, said the two could not be charged with usurpation of authority because no witness who heard the suspects introduce themselves as government agents.
Lawmen found expired PNP Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division (RIID) 7 IDs in Reyes' and Diabordo's possession. The Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 disowned them as active confidential RIID 7 agents.
Meanwhile, Supt. Vicente Loot, former chief of the defunct Regional Anti-Narcotics Office (Rano) 7, Tuesday affirmed that he got information that Pabia was a drug trader operating in Lapu-Lapu City.
Citing reports from civilian narcotics assets, Loot also confirmed that Pabia was classified as a "Level 2" drug pusher. The PNP said a Level 2 pusher can dispose of 200 grams to 29 kilos of shabu a month.
Loot, now Philippine Center on Transnational Crime chief, said he already submitted a report to the concerned law enforcement units about the illicit trade of Pabia, who used Lapu-Lapu City as his "area of distribution."
As to the ballistic test results, Duyogan explained that the marks on the four recovered 9 mm shells matched those of the marks on the shell fired from Reyes' 9 mm pistol.
Assistant City Prosecutor Geronima Baring said the positive ballistic test results strengthen case against Reyes.
But the two metallic jackets, which were also submitted for examination, could not be tested as they were totally deformed.
The slug and seven empty shells of a .45 handgun found in the crime scene did not match those fired from the .45 handgun seized from Diabordo.
This means the firearm recovered from Diabordo was not the murder weapon.
Baguio theorized that Diabordo hid the real murder weapon and carried another .45 pistol when he and Reyes went back to crime scene and act as kibitzers.
When they noticed the suspects' presence, the lawmen quickly followed them to the PUJ terminal where they were later arrested.
Baguio believed that the span of time between the shooting and the suspects' arrest, which was nearly an hour, gave Diabordo a chance to change his firearm.
He was confident, though, that the negative results of the .45 handgun's ballistic test will not affect the murder case.
Baguio cited the case of Air Force captain Rodolfo Bonanza Jr., who shot parking attendant Peter Garbo at the airport in 1999.
The ballistic test on Bonanza's gun yielded a negative result, but still he was convicted through an eyewitness account, Baguio said.
So, Baguio is convinced that the eyewitness account, supposing Diabordo shot the victim, is strong enough to incriminate him.
On Pabia's case, Baguio dismissed possibility about the participation of a third gunman.
He said eyewitnesses, who already executed formal statements, told them there were only two gunmen.
Since there has already been an ongoing investigation, the Lapu-Lapu City Council will just wait for results before it will conduct its own inquiry, said City Councilor Eugene Espedido. (MBG/OCP/GC/Sun.Star Cebu)
(April 16, 2003 issue)
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