5 brothers meted life for policeman's murder in Caloocan

A Caloocan City court meted yesterday life imprisonment to five brothers found guilty in the murder of their policeman neighbor some eight years ago.

Judge Thelma Canlas Trinidad Pe-Aguirre, in a 26-page decision, found brothers Herminiano Jr., 40, Ferdinand, 37, Christopher, 33, Valentino, 32, and Willyboy, 28, all surnamed Abad, guilty for the murder of Police Officer 1 Louie Lim in November 2000.

In her verdict, Trinidad Pe-Aguirre said that the accused were “found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of murder, qualified by treachery, and this court sentences each accused to suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua.” The judge also ordered each of them to indemnify the heirs of the victim P50,000, P100,000 in exemplary damages, and P43,000 in actual damages.

Court record showed that at around 8:45 p.m., on Nov. 29, 2000, the accused mauled and killed Lim, their neighbor in Phase 10, Package 2 in Bagong Silang.

Lim, then assigned at the National Capital Region Police Office-Regional Mobile Group in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig, was on his way home when he engaged in a heated verbal tussle with one of the brothers – Willyboy.

The other brothers came to the aid of Willyboy. They ganged up and killed the policeman.

Lim was declared dead on arrival at the Tala Hospital because of head and body injuries including stab wounds and hack wounds.

In their argument, the brothers claimed that they killed Lim, who was then armed with his 9mm service pistol, in self-defense.

But the court said the accused failed to prove an “unlawful aggression on the part of the victim; reasonable necessity for the means employed to prevent or repel it; and no sufficient provocation on the part of the person resorting to self defense.”

The court instead found them guilty of “conspiracy” in murdering Lim.

“All the accused acted in concert” to kill Lim, and his “killing was qualified with treachery. Although the victim appeared to be armed, it was clear from the evidence that he was not able to defend himself,” Trinidad Pe-Aguirre said.

The convicts were brought yesterday to the Caloocan City Jail but jail warden Superintendent Lyndon Torres said “the convicts would be brought immediately to the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa.”

Torres’ men said that two of the convicts’ brothers were just released from the city jail after ser­ ving term for robbery charges.