Nodalo's death prompts dismissal of rob charges

Almost a year after he was killed by unidentified armed men inside a cockpit in Bohol, Joel "Tongol" Nodalo was cleared by the court of robbery charge for allegedly grabbing the handgun of a jail official during a jail break in 2003.

Regional Trial Court judge Generosa Labra said Nodalo could no longer be convicted of the crime because he was already dead, although records of the case had established that he took the 9mm pistol of jail official, Inspector Evelino Escaño.

Labra said Nodalo died before the presentation of evidence for his defense so his criminal and civil liability are totally extinguished, as provided for in Article 89 of the Revised Penal Code.

Along with Nodalo, the court also cleared Washington Calimbo of the same robbery charge after Escaño and other prosecution witnesses testified that Calimbo did not help Nodalo disarmed the jail official of his firearm.

Nodalo and Calimbo were with four other inmates, Riel Bautista, Felix Al-os, Mitchel Bernabe and Benjamin Ycong, who bolted the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center nearly four years ago while their robbery cases were pending in court at the time.

The court, however, archived the cases against the four others because they have been at-large until now.

It was reported that Nodalo and Bautista were armed men with .45 caliber pistols when they staged the jailbreak. They succeeded in their escape but Nodalo got hit in the right leg by jail guards on his way out.

Nodalo, then the ninth most wanted man in Central Visayas with other pending cases, was arrested in October last year in Escalante, Negros Occidental. He was freed after posting bail but unidentified men gunned him down in Bohol. - Rene U. Borromeo/RAE