What Laoag City Councilor Modesto Melvin M. dela Cuesta said he did not do during the Department of Justice (DOJ) preliminary investigation on former Laoag City Vice Mayor Jimmy O. Chua’s killing on April 25—that of recanting his testimony implicating Laoag City Mayor Michael V. Fariñas in the killing—he succeeded in doing during the July 8 DOJ preliminary hearing. Though he had earlier recanted his testimony implicating Fariñas during the April 25 DOJ preliminary hearing, Dela Cuesta made it clearer on his counter-affidavit and clarificatory affidavit submitted on July 8 to the DOJ panel hearing the case that it was not Fariñas who “accidentally shot” the late vice mayor but an unknown gunman. In his sixth affidavit pertaining to the case, Dela Cuesta said that he had not re-subscribed to his February 24 supplemental affidavit since the narration of facts in this affidavit “were not my personal narration of facts, or not my own doing, but that of the NBI agents, which was patterned according to their version on the shooting incident.” Dela Cuesta went on to claim in his affidavit that he “was forced, intimidated, unduly influenced and pressured to have falsely identified Mayor MICHAEL FARIÑAS, as the person who allegedly accidentally shot to death Vice Mayor JIMMY CHUA at past 2:00 A.M. of February 2, 2005.” The embattled city councilor further claimed that he was threatened “to be included as a co-accused to murder, if, (he) will not sign their prepared Statement,” which he described as their “contrary version on the shooting incident, as theorized by the NBI agents and the private complainant.” Earlier, the affidavit Dela Cuesta said have been forced upon him and which implicated Fariñas in the Chua killing had been read on a local radio station by Dela Cuesta himself. Chua was killed on February 2 at the Eagle’s Nest Bar and Restaurant in Barangay Salet, Laoag City just right after the 2005 Pamulinawen Festival’s kick-off activities. Dela Cuesta, who was with Chua at the night of the killing, along with Fariñas and former Laoag City Police Chief Joel D. Pagdilao, stated that an unknown gunman killed Chua as the late vice mayor was exiting from the restaurant’s rest room. On February 25, Dela Cuesta read his affidavit live over a local radio station saying among others that his conscience had been bothering him, which eventually forced him to tell the truth about Chua’s death. In this affidavit, Dela Cuesta implicated Fariñas as the one who accidentally shot Chua. In April 2005, Dela Cuesta refused to re-subscribe to his fourth affidavit implicating Fariñas saying this was done not of his own will, but was forced upon him by NBI agents. Michael T. Esmino
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