P1-M reward offered for arrest of ex-Nueva Ecija mayor

MANILA, Philippines - A P1-million reward awaits the person who can provide information that will lead to the arrest of former Gapan mayor Ernesto Natividad, who is tagged as the mastermind in the murder of brothers Ericson and Ebertson Pascual in 2006.

The Pascual family has offered the reward money.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) ordered the filing of murder charges against the former mayor, Romeo Natividad and Ricardo Peralta in 2009. However, the Office of the Ombudsman, then headed by Merceditas Guitierrez, in a ruling on April 8, 2009, excluded the Natividads and Peralta from the murder case.

In her order dated Dec. 19, 2011, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales granted the motion for reconsideration of the Pascuals to affirm the DOJ ruling.

Witness Virgilio Maglapo claimed that Natividad masterminded the killing “because of politics.“ He said Peralta contacted him on March 10, 2006 and relayed to him the plan to kill the Pascual brothers.

Maglapo said he was even brought to the house of the former mayor, where he was given P20,000 as downpayment for the P100,000 to carry out the plan.