Farm caretakers gun down 2 boys

CEBU, Philippines - Two caretakers of a farm in Barangay Cubacub, Mandaue City were arrested yesterday dawn after they were accused of shooting dead two children whom they allegedly caught stealing a galvanized iron sheet from the said farm.

Lucas Taoy, 35, a native of Barangay Lanit-ga, and Jason Laurente, 18, of Barangay Tac-an, both of Carmen town, were arrested by elements of the Homicide Section of the Mandaue City Police Office led by its chief Insp. Ramil Morpos around 3:30 a.m. yesterday.

Both are held responsible for the killing of Aljay Acuesta, 13, and Ellari Villarin, 12, both residents of Purok 4, Cubacub, Mandaue City.

Police said last Thursday, a certain Ayet Icasyam went to the Canduman Police Station to report that his brother Aljay Acuesta was missing.

The following day, Emma Soco, the mother of Villarin, also went to the same police station, accompanied by Cubacub barangay councilman Virgilio Gogo, to report that his son Ellari was also missing.

Witnesses allegedly told Soco that Villarin and Acuesta were seen together last Thursday going uphill to where the farm was located.

Soco and Gogo went to the area around 11:30 p.m. last Friday where they found the dead bodies of the two boys near a barbed wire fence. 

A galvanized iron sheet was also found where they lay. Police would also later find a hammer and a cellular phone at the crime scene.

Both Soco and Gogo went back to the Canduman police to report the grisly find and the Canduman police then coordinated with the MCPO Homicide Section.

Police determined Villarin sustained three gunshot wounds to the abdomen while Acuesta was shot twice in the chest.

It was a certain Roselyn Tigue who reported seeing the children going to the farm last Thursday afternoon bringing with them a hammer.

Tigue said that minutes after he saw the two children, she heard several gunshots but she did not think much about it. She added this was because she often heard the guards discharging their firearms, a claim backed up by her neighbors. 

Police then arrested both men around 3:30 a.m. yesterday and recovered from them two .22 cal. pistols, one with two live rounds and the other six live rounds.

Investigators said the two first denied any involvement in the killing when they were questioned at the MCPO headquarters but later confessed to the crime when police showed them the cellular phone that had been found in the crime scene and allegedly belong to Taoy.

Police said the cellular phone had a text message where Taoy allegedly asked for help from his girlfriend how to cover up the crime.

Taoy allegedly told police he caught the two in the act of stealing the galvanized iron sheet. He also added this was not the first time the two came to the farm to steal.

Both suspects are now separately detained; Taoy at the Canduman Police Station and Laurente at the Basak Police Station.

Police said they have yet to consider recommending Laurente to stand as a state witness as he had less participation in the crime, but a double murder case is already being prepared for both of them due to conspiracy. — /BRP (THE FREEMAN)