Airtight case vs mayor, et al
CAMP GARCIA, Cavite — Senior Superintendent William M. Segun, Cavite Police Provincial Office (PPO) director, and lawyers said yesterday they have an airtight case against the five suspects in the July 7 ambush-slaying of Trece Martires City Vice Mayor Alexander C. Lubigan.
The principal suspect in the case is Trece Martires Mayor Melandres G. de Sagun who is now reportedly in the United States and has not issued a statement.
Last Thursday, a double murder and frustrated murder complaint was filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ) against De Sagun and several others over the killing of Vice Mayor Alex Lubigan and his driver, Romulo Guillemer. The ambush also wounded the vice mayor’s security aide, Romeo Edrinal.
Four others accused in the case were identified by Segun as Ariel Fletchetro Paiton, Luis Vasquez Abad Jr., Maragondon Councilor Lawrence “Umbe” Arca, Rhonel Bersamina, but several others involved in the case are known only as “John Does.”
Segun accompanied Lubigan’s wife Gemma and Anabel, wife of Guillemer, in filing the complaints at the Prosecutor General’s Office last Thursday.
Lubigan and Guillemer died after a man with an M-16 rifle opened fire at his black pickup near the Korean-Philippines Friendship Hospital on Trece Martires-Indang Road in the afternoon of July 7.
A source said that five Philippine National Police (PNP) and private lawyers are handling the Lubigan case.
Thirty-nine pages of complaint affidavits, including the transmittal, were filed against the suspects.
Segun said on Thursday the police and the lawyers of Lubigan have a strong and airtight case against the suspects with the evidence they have and the witnesses’ accounts.
The case had two witnesses and that several others are willing to testify against the suspects, he said.
The firing happened when the gunman’s vehicle, also a Toyota HiLux, went side-byside with Lubigan’s car.
The Lubigan family said that politics had something to do with the attack.
Mayor De Sagun and the co-respondents have yet to issue a statement on the complaints filed against them. A report said that De Sagun is in the United States.