Malabon official, charged with murder, surrenders

MANILA, Philippines - Malabon City administrator Benjamin Villacorta, accused of killing a Mandaluyong City businessman last year, surrendered to the city police Tuesday, an official said yesterday.

Senior Superintendent Ferdinand Ampil, Malabon City police chief, said Villacorta is in his custody pending an order from the court to turn him over to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).

“He (Villacorta) would be turned over to the BJMP once we receive the commitment order from the court,” Ampil told The STAR in a telephone interview.

Department of Justice assistant state prosecutor Ferdinand Fernandez charged Villacorta and former Malabon City Hall employee Marlon Marquina with murder before the Malabon Regional Trial Court Branch 74 for the killing of Michael Buquid on June 20, 2011.

Fernandez set no bail for the suspects, which was approved by DOJ’s prosecutor general Claro Arellano.

An insider at the Malabon City Hall said Villacorta went on leave last month “so he could fully attend to his cases,” while Marquina remains at large.

At around 1 p.m. on June 20 last year, Buquid was about to board his black Toyota Vios (XRD-337) in front of a restaurant in Tugatog when two men on a motorcycle shot him in the head. The Vios is owned by Edna Perlas, a business partner in Valenzuela City.

Using slugs and shells recovered from the crime scene, the Northern Police District traced the .45 caliber Norinco pistol used in killing Buquid to Marquina.

In a statement to the National Bureau of Investigation, a copy of which was obtained by The STAR, the victim’s widow, Severa Buquid, said her husband, owner of 20th Pharma Trade in Mandaluyong City, had a P50-million business transaction at the Malabon City Hall the day he was killed. He was about to meet Villacorta and Marquina that day, she said.

Sebastiana Dadia, Buquid’s friend, said the victim was setting up at least two major business ventures in Malabon – one to provide medical supplies and equipment and another for the construction of the Malabon City Hospital.

Consolita Totanes, another friend of the victim, said that a few hours before Buquid was killed, he told her he would be meeting Marquina to get a payment on his business transaction.

In September last year, Valenzuela City trader Myrna Ojeda Tan filed an estafa case against Villacorta, Marquina, Tutanes, Dadia and three other persons for allegedly conspiring to defraud her of P16.5 million.

Tan said she shelled out the money as part of the financial capital for Buquid’s business venture at the Malabon City Hall but she later found out that the project was a hoax when Buquid was killed.

According to Evangeline Arenga, Malabon City assessor and chairperson of the bids and award committee, the alleged business venture was non-existent. The estafa case has yet to be resolved.