Cadets in Chua murder being made fall guys?

Lawyer Serafin Rivera, legal counsel of ROTC cadet officers charged by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) with the murder of University of Santo Tomas student Mark Welson Chua, believes his "clients are being made the fall guys."

The lawyer said NBI investigators failed to pinpoint the alleged mastermind of the crime.

It will be recalled that Chua’s body was found floating on the Pasig River on March 18, 2001. Observers speculated that revenge may have been the motive for Chua’s death after he and some ROTC cadet officers had earlier reported certain anomalies and irregularities at the UST ROTC.

Chua’s allegations were published in the university’s school organ, Varsitarian, and subsequent investigation resulted in the relief of the UST-ROTC Commander Maj. Demy Tejares, together with his military non-commissioned officers.

Paul Joseph Tan, one of the cadets who joined Chua in reporting irregularities in the reserve officers corps, said that a certain T/Sgt. Genesis Binagatan had poked a gun at him in the presence of ROTC cadets while they were having their drill exercises.

Witnesses are said to have positively identified Binagatan to be one of four persons seen dumping Chua’s body into the Pasig River, in the vicinity of the back of the Manila Post Office building.

Binagatan is now charged with murder at the Manila Regional Trial Court and has been detained without bail. He has continued to refuse to cooperate and identify his companions and the mastermind of Chua’s murder.

Rivera, a former IBP governor and chairman of the National Committee on Legal Aid, claims that the NBI investigators handling the case have conveniently recommended the filing of murder charges against his clients – ROTC cadet officers Paul Joseph Tan, Michael Rainard Manangbao, Eduardo Tabrilla and Patrick Christopher Cruz, for alleged conspiracy with Binagatan.

"My clients have been charged on the basis of statements made by witnesses for the complaint that the four cadet officers, together with some other cadets and a lady corps sponsor, were at the DMST offices on the evening of March 15," Rivera said.

"Not a single witness was presented before the DOJ Investigating Prosecutor that could attest to the fact that the respondent cadet officers participated in any manner in the alleged murder of Chua inside the DMST offices," Rivera added.