The former mayor of a town in Aklan who is accused of shooting dead a radio broadcaster four years ago pleaded not guilty to the crime during his arraignment in Cebu yesterday.
Alfredo Arcenio was still the mayor of Lezo town when Herson Hinolan, the manager of dyIN Bombo Radyo in Kalibo, was shot dead while walking with friends near a carnival in Kalibo town on the evening of November 13, 2004.
Hinolan, who often criticized Arcenio in his daily program “Bombohanay Bigtime,” was shot seven times in different parts of his body and was rushed to the hospital by his companions where he died two days later.
After several months of hiding following the death of Hinolan, Arcenio surrendered to the court in Kalibo that issued the warrant for his arrest and applied for bail.
A certain Peter Melgar at first pointed to Arcenio as the shooter but later retracted his statement. The case was later moved to Cebu City to protect the other witnesses.
Arcenio, who used to be an Army intelligence officer before he joined politics, was escorted yesterday to the sala of Regional Trial Court Branch 16 judge Sylvia Paderanga for the arraignment of his case, in which he strongly denied involvement in the death of Hinolan.
The accused asked the court to allow him post bail but Paderanga instead allowed the prosecution to present its first witness yesterday. — Rene U. Borromeo/BRP