DOJ indicts 7 in Rolito Go kidnap

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has approved the indictment of seven persons tagged in the kidnapping of convicted murderer Rolito Go from the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in August last year.

In a 21-page resolution released yesterday, the investigating panel of prosecutors found probable cause to charge engineer Emilio Ortiz, Jerry Duenas, Armando Mondero, Lawrence Yurong, Emerson Guazon, Fernando Francisco and Reynaldo Tadtad in court with kidnapping for ransom.

Assistant State Prosecutors Susan Azarcon and Christine Perolino found the respondents individually liable for abducting Go and his nephew Klemens Yu at the Ina Ng Awa parish in the NBP’s minimum security compound on Aug. 14, 2012.

The DOJ panel gave credence to the victims’ identification of Duenas, Mondero and Yurong as among the four men who kidnapped them from the NBP and brought them to a safehouse in Sto. Tomas, Batangas.

Confession

Duenas and Mondero, the only two of the seven respondents arrested so far, confessed to their participation in the kidnapping during the hearings.

Guazon was also indicted after Duenas and Montero pointed to him as their companion, who withdrew money from Yu’s ATM account. He was also identified through surveillance footage from banks in Calamba, Laguna and Capitolyo, Pasig where he withdrew the cash.

Ortiz, the group’s alleged financier; and Tadtad, who admitted that his relatives own the safehouse where the victims were brought, claimed as their defense their “alleged lack of acquiescence and voluntariness in their participation in complainant’s kidnapping,” which the DOJ panel said it dismissed.

As for Guazon, the charges against him were sustained by the fiscals after he failed to submit answer during the preliminary investigation.

No conspiracy?

Although all seven respondents were found liable, the DOJ stressed that there is no sufficient evidence to show that respondents acted in conspiracy with one another in committing the crime.

The panel also junked the charges against a certain Kumander Rico for lack of necessary identification.

The group earlier demanded P200 million from the victim’s family. When the negotiation for the ransom went down to P50 million, Go and Yu were released the next day after their family failed to raise such a huge amount, the DOJ said.

A former businessman, Go was convicted for the death of Eldon Maguan, a De La Salle University engineering student, in 1991, after a traffic altercation in Greenhills, San Juan. Go, then 43, went the wrong way on a one-way portion of Wilson street and shot Maguan in the head while the latter was seated in his car. Maguan had just bought a pizza. He was 25.

It was one of the most sensational murders in the country.

In 1993, a Pasig court convicted Go and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Under the Arroyo administration, Go sought executive clemency, but Maguan’s family opposed his bid.