Suspect in killing of Pasay woman judge arrested

NATIVIDAD, Pangasinan — Combined elements of the local police and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group based in Urdaneta City arrested a suspect in the fatal stabbing of a Pasay City woman judge in her residence here last Sept. 23.

Inspector Bernardo Aromin, this town’s police chief, told The STAR that the suspect, Elmer Cabiles, 40, was nabbed in Barangay Sto. Domingo in Lupao, Nueva Ecija where he had gone into hiding after the killing of sixty-one-year-old Judge Estrellita Paas.

Cabiles did not resist arrest. He, however, was confined due to malaria in a hospital in Urdaneta City, where he is now under tight guard.

The police said it was Cabiles’ wife, Aida, a resident of Poblacion West here, who told investigators about her husband’s participation in the killing of Paas, presiding judge of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court Branch 44.

Mrs. Cabiles claimed that her husband told her about the killing and that he decided to hide in his aunt’s residence in Nueva Ecija.

Cabiles, however, pointed to his companion, a certain Jornald Vargas, as the one who stabbed Paas.

The two suspects were reportedly supposed to kill Paas’ husband, lawyer Reinerio Paas, for still unknown reasons, but he was not around when they barged into the couple’s residence in Poblacion West. The victim was alone when the tragedy happened.

Cabiles was arrested though on the strength of a warrant for a murder case in Caloocan City.