YOU chairman tagged as Baron Cervantes slay brains

The alleged gunman in the killing of controversial Young Officers Union (YOU) spokesman Baron Cervantes tagged yesterday the founding chairman of the shadowy military fraternity as the mastermind of the crime.

Speaking at a police press conference at Camp Crame, former Marine Sgt. Joseph Mostrales claimed police Superintendent Rafael Cardeno had given the orders for the assassination that took place New Year’s Eve last year.

A manhunt has been ordered for Cardeno after a team of investigators failed to locate the suspect at his residence in Biñan, Laguna.

"Apparently, he is now in hiding," said one of the investigators assigned to question the police official.

Mostrales, who once served as personal bodyguard of ousted President Joseph Estrada, was arrested in Pangasinan last Tuesday. He had been positively identified by a witness as the one who shot Cervantes at close range near a convenience store along the Alabang-Zapote Road in Las Piñas on Dec. 31, 2001.

Following his arrest, Mostrales offered to testify against other personalities involved in the killing of Cervantes. A suspected accomplice, a civilian named Jaime Centeno, was arrested in a raid in Antipolo City on Tuesday.

Mostrales, a member of another shadowy group known as the Guardians, said four other people were involved in the killing.

Police officials have also ordered a manhunt for the other suspects, whose identities were withheld.

Mostrales had previously served as close-in security for Estrada while assigned to the Presidential Security Group (PSG). He was dismissed earlier this year for going on AWOL (absence without official leave) and has since been linked to several kidnapping-for-ransom cases.

Cervantes was killed amid rumors of destabilization attempts being hatched against President Arroyo. His warning of a coup by rightist and anti-government groups spurred speculation that an internal rift had broken out in the YOU.

YOU had been involved in rightist military coup attempts against then President Corazon Aquino in the late ’80s but it has since declared that it is abandoning violence.

Cervantes claimed that top leaders of YOU and other rightist groups were holding secret meetings in Puerto Azul in Cavite to plot the toppling of the Arroyo administration.

Police investigators said they have long considered Cardeno and other officials of YOU and the Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabansa (RAM) as suspects in the Cervantes killing.

Mostrales said they killed Cervantes the same day Cardeno gave the go-signal for his "neutralization."

"He (Cervantes) was seen as a hindrance to our objectives," Mostrales said during yesterday’s press conference.

At the time of the Cervantes murder, Cardeno was serving as executive assistant of then Land Transportation Office chief retired Brig. Gen. Edgardo Abenina, the founding chairman of RAM.

Abenina, Cardeno, RAM spokesman retired Navy Capt. Proceso Maligalig and police Superintendent Diosdado Valeroso, were among several people invited by police to shed light on the murder.

All four men denied involvement in the crime when questioned by the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group early this year.

Gunman linked to kidnap case

Police said yesterday Mostrales was one of 16 men charged in the kidnapping of 14-year-old Ma. Angela Pineda, whose father, Dr. Vinson Pineda, is the inventor of a popular hair growing medicine. She was freed after the family paid the kidnappers some P11 million.

Pineda was abducted in Mandaluyong City on Nov. 12, 2001 while on her way to school with three schoolmates, two nannies and Pineda family driver Emilio Altarejos.

Pineda’s Hyundai Starex van was blocked by a maroon Toyota Revo at Shaw Boulevard and Calderon street in Mandaluyong City. Four unidentified men in black, armed with high-powered firearms, rushed at the van and pointed their rifles at Altarejos, ordering him to open the van’s door.

The suspects then grabbed Angela and dragged her into their vehicle, where another unidentified man waited at the wheels. The two nannies tried to intervene but the suspects hit them with the butts of their rifles.

One of the suspects grabbed the van’s keys from Altarejos and warned him and the nannies not to report the incident to the police before speeding off toward Pasig City.

Police said yesterday Mostrales had been tagged by Pineda’s driver as the one who grabbed the keys of the vehicle.

Philippine National Police (PNP) Deputy Director General Hermogenes Ebdane, who heads the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (NAKTAF), said they will ask Altarejos and other witnesses to help positively identify the suspect.