Bacalla kidnap charges filed; suspects may get death — DOJ

Three suspects who admitted having kidnapped and killed a son of the late Quezon City Judge Marciano Bacalla on May 3 will suffer capital punishment if convicted by the court, the Department of Justice said.

"Kidnapping-for-ransom with homicide is punishable by death. We recommended no bail for their release," said State Prosecutor Perfecto Lawrence Chua Cheng, a member of the inquest team headed by Richard Anthony Fadullon.

DOJ prosecutors filed yesterday morning kidnap-slay charges in the Quezon City Regional Trial Court against CBR club owner Onofre Surat, 38, the alleged mastermind, doorman Rodrigo Catungal, 22, and waiter Jerro Garcia, 22.

Surat admitted to reporters last Wednesday they abducted and accidentally killed his friend Mark Henry Bacalla, 24, after a drinking bout. He said they were only after the ransom, but he gave them no choice when he put up a fight.

Surat faces additional charges of illegal possession of firearms for being caught with an unlicensed 9mm pistol, according to Cheng, and violation of the Comelec gun ban which expires on June 30.

Cheng said they will move to "consolidate" the kidnapping charges against six other cohorts of Surat who were caught receiving part of the ransom, now pending in the sala of Judge Monina Zeñarosa, by filing an "amended information."

The National Bureau of Investigation presented the testimonies of guest relations officers Rosita Galvez and Marie Mondares who narrated that they escorted Bacalla, Catungal and Garcia from the CBR club to Surat’s Honda Civic car.

Surat was collared by NBI agents under the Special Action Unit headed by lawyer Edmund Arugay. Justice Secretary Hernando Perez said the case is now considered "solved" with their arrests, whom NBI chief Wycoco said were "amateur kidnappers."

The Bacalla family paid P142,000 ransom on May 8. The second payment was made nine days later where the family shelled out another P490,000. It was at this juncture that another suspect, Zaldy Cariño, was arrested and charged along with five others.

PNP-Intelligence Group chief Reynaldo Berroya said Cariño, who was caught receiving the ransom money, was "positively identified" by Mrs. Ofelia Bacalla. He is now detained at the CIDG jail in Camp Crame, along with the other suspects.

The young Bacalla’s body was dumped in Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija on May 17. He had been mauled to death.

Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation said yesterday there is no rift between it and the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group over the Mark Bacalla kidnap and murder case.

"As far as we are concerned, the case is now considered closed, unless the PNP comes up with new developments. The CIDG is now the main anti-kidnapping unit. If this report is not corrected, nobody will now approach them to ask for help as their agents are now being perceived as among those involved in the crime," Wycoco said.

Wycoco also brushed-off reports of credit grabbing in the solution of the Bacalla case.

"There is no credit grabbing in this case. The PNP-CIDG and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines were the ones originally involved in the case. There is no room for credit grabbing in the Arroyo administration," he said.