Tuesday, July 20, 2004 Lao pa asks: Get the mastermind
CEBU CITY -- The fatal ambush on deputy customs collector Eduardo "Wewe" Lao and appraiser Bennett Soreņo will mark its first year on July 24, but until now the mastermind remains free.
Two alleged gunmen-Juan Jesus Vergel de Dios and Rustico Fernandez-told the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 24 Monday they are not guilty.
They have yet to give their plea for a separate frustrated murder case pending before Branch 6 of the RTC.
The case is in relation to the injuries Samuel Dejan, Lao's driver, and Nestor Ancajas, a jeepney driver, suffered when Lao was ambushed near the Police Regional Office 7.
Soreņo was also aboard Lao's Isuzu Trooper when two men, armed with machine pistols, strafed the vehicle while stopping for a red light on Osmeņa Blvd. and R.R. Landon St., Cebu City.
A high school student, Allan Dave Ravina, who across the street outside the Abellana National School, was hit by a stray bullet and died.
Lawyer Dominique Elnar, Fernandez's counsel, said he will ask for the consolidation of the two cases, citing the difficulty in separately defending the same issues.
Consolador, Lao's 76-year-old father, lamented how the investigation failed to name the brains behind the ambush.
De Dios earlier tagged a BOC official and a Chinese trader as the ones who came up with the plan to kill Lao.
De Dios, 31, of Lag-tang, Talisay City, mentioned a customs examiner as the one who hired him when they met in Plaza Independencia two days before the ambush.
De Dios said the BOC official and the Chinese businessman met in a bar in Mandaue City two days before the attack.
When asked what the official's motive for the attack was, de Dios said it had something to do with a personal matter and the July 18 seizure of 10 container vans of imported rice at the Cebu International Port.
De Dios, who hails from Manila, said he received P5,000 to carry out his task.
But de Dios and Fernandez pleaded not guilty during the arraignment before RTC Branch 24 Judge Olegario Sarmiento Jr.
The frustrated murder case against them may still be consolidated with the multiple murder case at Branch 24. Lawyer Elnar said the case also involves a minor, Ravina.
Ravina, 16, was a graduating student of the Abellana National High School when a stray bullet hit him in the head. He was buying a banana cue near the road that time.
Ancajas was driving his PUJ when grazed by a bullet.
The case will be prosecuted by Assistant Cebu City Prosecutor Patrick Osorio. De Dios will be defended by public lawyer Llena Ypong, and Fernandez by Elnar.
Both parties still have to prepare for the pre-trial conference, that part where both parties may accept facts, thus eliminating the need for lengthy arguments during trial.
In an interview after the arraignment, Consolador wished that the two accused point to the masterminds once they give their testimonies.
He noted that although investigators already knew the masterminds, they have not been publicly named.
Consolador said those who know the masterminds are hesitant to come out as the they are "influential and moneyed." GAN
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