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Tuesday, March 11, 2008
2 own up rob-slay of nursing student
CEBU CITY -- Police arrested Sunday and Monday two of alleged perpetrators in the robbery-slay of nursing student Ruby Jade Ruba, then placed under its custody the third suspect who showed up to deny his participation in the incident.
With the arrest and the subsequent filing of the complaints against the three late in the afternoon Monday, Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Patrocinio Comendador considered the case solved at the police level.
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Aivan Eping Barabat, Mark Anthony Gabriel, and Karl Marx Carticiano were charged with robbery and homicide for the March 6, 2008 midnight incident before the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor.
Two witnesses, who went to CCPO Monday, identified Barabat and Gabriel as the two men who victimized Ruba, 20.
A fourth accused, Maria Baswa, was charged separately for a violation of the anti-fencing law. She was accused of buying for P3,000 the cell phone the three stole from Ruba, a charge she vehemently denied.
Attached to the complaint against the three were the extrajudicial confessions that Barabat and Gabriel gave to the Homicide Section of CCPO in the presence of lawyer Aquilino Felicitas.
Comendador together with members of Task Force Ruby Jade, presented in a news conference Barabat, 20, of Unit 4 Oppra, Barangay Kaluna-san and Gabriel, 18, of Ponce Capitol Greenhills, Capitol Site.
Both suspects are members of Crips Gang. They served as chapter leaders in their respective areas.
Barabat and Gabriel, who owned up to the crime, were arrested in separate operations by the task force headed by Senior Insp. George Ylanan.
Hours after the news conference, police arrested the third suspect, Carticiano, 21, who went to the Homicide Section to claim his innocence.
Barabat and Gabriel identified Carticiano as the driver of their getaway motorcycle. He denied the allegation.
Superintendent Pablo Labra II, CCPO deputy director for operations, said that while Carticiano denied the accusation against him, he was arrested because he was identified as one of the perpetrators and was subject of a manhunt operation.
Denial
Police also held under custody Baswa, 41, another resident of Oppra, Kalunasan after Barabat identified her as the one who bought the cellular phone taken from Ruba.
But Baswa, in an interview with reporters, denied Barabat's claim.
"Sayud gyud ang Ginoo nga wa gyud ko kapalit gikan niya," she said.
Baswa, who buys and sells plastics and empty bottles, only admitted buying from Barabat's friend last year a Nokia 6600, which she pawned last month.
She turned over to the police the copy of the receipt from the pawnshop.
The four were brought to the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor late Monday afternoon but Assistant City Prosecutor Liceria Rabillas, the inquest prosecutor, could not file a case against them for lack of time.
While Barabat and Gabriel admitted to the shooting, Carticiano was adamant in insisting his innocence, saying he wants a formal preliminary investigation.
He said that he was in B. Rodriguez St. drinking with his friends when the incident transpired and that he has lots of witnesses to attest his claim.
He admitted during yesterday's inquest though that he knows Barabat and Gabriel, them being his "brods" in the gang.
Information
Comendador said that the team from the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau, Theft and Robbery Section and Homicide Section continuously conducted operations to identify and arrest the perpetrators.
Lots of information from the public, Comendador said, also helped the police in pinning down the suspects.
As to who will received the P30,000 cash reward Mayor Tomas Osmeña offered, Comendador said the CCPO will give the mayor a copy of the report on the arrest of the three suspects for him to assess who deserves it.
Councilor Edgardo Labella, meanwhile, will ask his colleagues to make an ordinance he authored to help curb cellular phone theft an urgent measure in the light of the Ruba incident.
The ordinance requires managers/proprietors of all mobile phone stores and pawnshops to oblige owners of pawned or sold phones to present a valid identification card.
It also requires all pawnshops and businesses engaged in buying, selling, and pawning of second-hand cellular phones to secure permits from the National Telecommunications Commission.
The ordinance is pending before the council committee on laws through its vice chairman, City Councilor Gerardo Carillo, for comments and suggestions.
IBP's stand
Osmeña, for his part, questioned the Integrated Bar of the Philippines He (IBP) Cebu City Chapter's failure to call for justice when Ruba was killed.
"Notice that when a policeman gets killed, the IBP remains quiet. When a young girl is robbed and killed, there's not even a word of sympathy from the IBP. But when a suspected criminal is killed, they scream like it's the most heinous crime committed in the city," Osmeña told reporters Monday. (JST/KNR/RHM/LCR/Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Baguio. (March 11, 2008 issue)
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