Charges filed against 5 suspects in Albay massacre

LEGAZPI CITY — Police has filed multiple murder cases against the five suspects in the massacre of a family of six, four of whom were children, in a remote village of Tumpa in Camalig, Albay.

Chief Inspector Rogelio Beraquit, Camalig town police chief, said the case was filed yesterday afternoon by SPO1Romeo Villarasa at the Regional Trial Court(RTC) in Legazpi City.

Beraquit said the case was filed after witnesses under Camalig police custody took a sworn affidavit.

The suspects were Romy Palivino, Tumpa barangay tanod chief; Willy Nasol, of Purok 5; brothers Pedro and Pablo Nopia, and a certain Jesus "Jose" Nopia, Jr. Palivino is a welder while Jesus and Pablo are farmers.

"Our pursuit operation against the suspects continues," said Beraquit who was in Barangay Tumpa yesterday morning after receiving reports that the suspects were sighted there.

Senior Superintendent Roque Ramirez, Albay police provincial director, has formed Task Force Moral from the different police units like 5th Regional Mobile Group(RMG), the 501st Provincial Mobile Group as well as from the 65th Infantry Batallion under Lt. Col. Manuel Orduña based in Barangay Tule-Tula in Ligao City.

The hunt for the suspects has become complicated as law enforcers have to reckon with the presence of the New Peoples Army (NPA) in the far-flung barangays in Camalig.

Beraquit said Barangay Tumpa is a "white area" of the Guerrilla Front 77, which operates in Albay’s third district, under a certain Iglecerio Pernia alias Ka Choy.

"The suspects are armed and dangerous and they must be apprehended," said Berangit.

Pursuing police teams figured in a one-minute exchange of gunfire with Pedro Nopia on Saturday morning in Barangay Tumpa. Nopia, who eluded arrest, was reportedly armed with M-16 rifle.

Police investigators are now focusing on either a love triangle or a land dispute as possible motives to the killing.

The assailants broke the windows of the victims’ house and hacked the victims’ to death.

Marilyn, 37, was hacked in the head, breaking her skull. Her right eye was also pierced by a sharpened bamboo. They also cut her hair and she was shot later.

Jesus Moral, 48, died from gunshot wounds in the stomach and upper right arm. There was a cut on his feet from a sharp bladed weapon.

The four children — Mark Kenneth, 10; Jemar Kim, 8; Jay-Ar, 7 and Mark Gil, 4; died from multiple hack wounds.

Scene-of-the-crime investigators found the bodies sprawled on the kitchen floor. Relatives of the victims brought the bodies at the barangay chapel for the wake.

The suspects were afraid to testify at first because they were threatened.