Not guilty, Bacolod clan massacre suspect pleads

BACOLOD CITY — The principal suspect in the brutal murders of a haciendero couple here, their son and two housemaids last Dec. 17 pleaded not guilty when he was arraigned yesterday.

Houseboy Bemon Gallo, 20, will be separately arraigned for the murders of the three grandsons of haciendero couple Carlos and Florinda Rivilla, namely Mark Anthony, 13, Guillermo Benrico, 11, and John Michael, 9.

The three children’s father, Benrico, and housemaids Dolores Ogatis and Ritchel Gonzales, were among those slain allegedly by Gallo inside the sprawling Rivilla residence on Aguinaldo street here in the morning of Dec. 17.

Gallo’s counsel, Joel Grijaldo, said his client will enter the same not-guilty plea in the murders of the three boys.

Judge Roberto Chiongson of Regional Trial Court Branch 50 has denied Grijaldo’s motion to consolidate the two cases.

Grijaldo said he was hoping that the motion will be granted because the defense will be presenting the same witnesses in both cases.

Meanwhile, Grijaldo said they will enter a plea bargain during the pre-trial on Feb. 14.

If the court and the prosecution agree to reduce the penalty from death to reclusion perpetua (life imprisonment), he said Gallo is willing to withdraw his not-guilty plea and admit the killings.

Gallo was arrested last Dec. 28 in Barangay Taba-ao, Sagay City, about 83 kilometers north from this city, by a combined team of the Bacolod police and the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force. — Antonieta Lopez