Cavite exec gets 24-year jail term for twin killings

MANILA, Philippines - The Sandiganbayan has sentenced a Cavite provincial board member to a maximum of 24 years in jail for allegedly ordering the killing of a police officer and a civilian eight years ago.

Provincial board member Alberto Ambagan Jr., former mayor of Amadeo town in Cavite, was also ordered to pay the families of SPO2 Reynaldo Santos and Domingo Bawalan more than P2.6 million in damages.

Also found guilty of two counts of homicide were former councilor Michael Malabanan and Civil Security Unit (CSU) members Ely Garcia and Roger Causaren.

Ambagan was convicted after Ombudsman lawyers led by Prosecution Bureau VI director Diosdado Calonge successfully proved that he “induced, commanded and ordered” his men to “attack, assault, and shoot” the victims on July 5, 2004.

Arraigned on Aug. 11, 2005, all the respondents pleaded not guilty to the charges, except for former barangay chairman Domingo Villasis who passed away three months after the incident.

Six other CSU members who were also charged for the killing and for supposedly providing “moral support” to Ambagan and his men were acquitted.

Records show that Santos, then head of the Intelligence and Investigation Division of the Cavite Provincial Mobile Group, apprehended a group of men carrying three long firearms in Barangay Tamacan on the day of the incident.

Prosecution witness Benigno Cabillo, the slain police officer’s immediate superior, testified that the victim informed him through a text message of the arrest and seizure of the guns.

Cabillo also told the Sandiganbayan’s First Division that Santos later told him in a phone call that Ambagan was at the site asking for a settlement and the release of the confiscated guns.

But when Cabillo arrived in the area some 20 to 30 minutes later, he said he saw Santos “lifeless, lying down in the highway with three other men.”

Ronnel Bawalan, brother of the slain civilian and cousin-in-law of Santos, became one of the prosecution’s most important witnesses as he saw the whole incident since he was originally at the site but was only asked by his brother to leave because it was dangerous.

Bawalan, who hid behind bushes at the entrance of an old poultry house which was only 10 to 15 meters away from where Santos was standing, said he heard Ambagan repeatedly asking Santos for a settlement but the latter kept telling the other to just wait for Cabillo who was on his way.

Bawalan said he later heard Ambagan getting angry and then ordering his men to go after Santos. He said five minutes of gunfight followed with Ambagan’s men later boarding their vehicles to leave the area.