Cotabato clan gets justice for scion’s 1995 killing

COTABATO CITY — An influential Muslim clan here finally got justice last week when two Quezon City policemen were meted life imprisonment for the killing of one of its scions in 1995.

Quezon City Judge Demetrio Macapagal Sr. convicted police officers Ernesto Diaz and Fernando Nituan for the fatal shooting of Datu Gemie Sinsuat in the vicinity of Scout Reyes and Mother Ignacia streets in Quezon City on July 13, 1995

The court relied mainly on the testimony of witness Raymundo Rodrigo who said that the two policemen, after frisking Sinsuat, ordered him to drop on the ground and then shot him in the head and back.

Sinsuat was then 19 years old and studying computer science at a school in Quezon City. He was buried near their clan’s torogan or royal house in Barangay Resa, North Upi, Maguindanao.

In their defense, the two police officers claimed they were running after members of a robbery gang and were flagging down several taxis when Sinsuat, who was aboard one of the cabs, opened fire, wounding a fellow policeman.

This, they claimed, triggered a brief firefight that resulted in Sinsuat’s death. But an autopsy by the National Bureau of Investigation showed that Sinsuat was repeatedly shot from behind.