Suspect in kidnap-slay of Robin’s half-brod falls

SAN MATEO, Isabela – One of the suspects in the abduction and killing of Gino Padilla, half-brother of action star Robin Padilla, was arrested here yesterday.

Chief Inspector Reynaldo Sinaon Sr., this town’s police chief, said the suspect, Catalino Mercado, 46, a former resident of Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija, was arrested by his men in the house of his cousin, Felino Roque, in Barangay Darauangan Norte here.

Mercado was nabbed by virtue of a warrant of arrest which Cauayan City Regional Trial Court Judge Raul Babaran had issued after the suspect was implicated in a series of highway robberies in the province.

Roque, who, incidentally, is a police asset, squealed about Mercado’s alleged participation in Padilla’s abduction and killing following the suspect’s arrest yesterday afternoon.

Mercado, according to a police report, escaped from the Nueva Ecija provincial jail in 1999 while serving a life sentence for rape and murder.

Gino, a nephew of House Minority Leader Carlos Padilla, was seized by five armed men from his family’s farm in Barangay Bibitlat in Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija last March 8.

The kidnappers also torched the Padillas’ farmhouse and gunned down their caretaker, Sixto de Gracia.

Three weeks later, Gino’s mangled body was recovered in Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija.

Rep. Padilla earlier said his nephew’s abduction and killing had something to do with an alleged dispute among Gino’s relatives involving a large tract of land in Nueva Ecija.

Gino and Robin’s father, the late former Assemblyman and Camarines Norte Gov. Roy Padilla Sr., was a cousin of Rep. Padilla of Nueva Vizcaya.