Abenina to face ‘Baron’ probers

Former Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief, retired Brig. Gen. Edgardo Abenina, is set to appear today before police probers investigating the Dec. 31 killing of discharged Army Lt. Baron Alexander Cervantes.

Abenina, one of the leaders of the rightist group Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabansa (RAM), is the fifth and last police and military official to be summoned for questioning by the Southern Police District (SPD).

Cervantes, 35, self-styled spokesman for another rightist group, the Young Officers Union (YOU), was gunned down at around 6 p.m. of Dec. 31 at a street corner in Las Piñas City while apparently waiting for someone.

Police had earlier spoken with YOU co-founder Superintendent Diosdado Valeroso, RAM spokesman retired Navy Capt. Proceso Maligalig and Army Col. Romeo Lim but YOU chairman Raphael Cardeno snubbed the police invitation for an interview.

The five were summoned ostensibly to shed light on their reported dispute with Cervantes days before he was killed.

Cervantes was killed two hours after he delivered to civic group leader Pastor Saycon a supposed intelligence report on a purported coup attempt against the Arroyo administration.

Valeroso, Maligalig and Lim admitted they disliked Cervantes because the slain Army officer had supposedly misrepresented himself as an active Army or police official and spokesman for the two groups.

But all three denied any knowledge of the killing or involvement in any purported coup plot against the government.

Aside from the coup angle, probers are also looking into speculations the killing had something to do with Cervantes’ supposed exposé regarding alleged anomalies in the LTO.

Police said Cardeno, who was then Abenina’s executive assistant at the LTO, quarreled with Cervantes who accused him of involvement in alleged irregularities in the LTO.

Cervantes was relieved from his LTO assignment in October after he and Valeroso were implicated in a supposed coup plot, dubbed "Black October."

The Philippine National Police (PNP) later recalled their detached service assignments a few days after they were questioned on the alleged coup attempt and transferred to provincial assignments.

Cardeno even made a scene during the police questioning and refused to sign an affidavit he supposedly prepared with the assistance of his lawyer-brother.

During the questioning last Oct. 24, PNP interrogators said Cardeno already indicated an intense dislike for Cervantes, whom he claimed hired a hitman to kill him. – Jose Aravilla