Despite the earlier announcement of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of a moratorium in the implementation of the death penalty and the subsequent moves of some lawmakers to abolish the death penalty, Judge Conrado Ragucos of the Laoag City Regional Trial Court Branch 16 sentenced two accused of multiple murders to death. The accused are Ruben Agulay, a barangay kagawad of Barangay Binacag, Banna, Ilocos Norte, and Rodolfo Flomar, a resident of Nueva Era, Ilocos Norte, and who had been found by the court guilty beyond reasonable doubt of three separate crimes of murder by treachery through conspiracy aggravated by the use of illegally possessed firearm. The accused were also ordered to pay P75,000 as civil indemnity, P50,000 as moral damages and P50,000 as temperate damages to their victims’ families. The case stemmed from an incident that happened on October 12, 2001 when the victims, identified as Joel Vidad, Stephen Velasco and Elizer Gamet were shot to death. An eyewitness, identified as Sergio Vidad and a father of one of the victims, testified that on that date he, along with the three victims, were on their way to their farm but as he was on a motorcycle and his companions were on foot, he reached their destination first. Some moments later, he said he heard gunshots coming from the north which prompted him to seek cover. He went on to say that while he was hiding he saw five heavily armed men appear from a bushy area along a curve, shot the victims then fled. Of the five malefactors, he was able to immediately identify Agulay, Roderick Tolentino and Perling Madarang. Agulay is a kagawad in their barangay while the two others were his neighbors. He added that he later found out the names of the other two from tricycle drivers. The two other suspects turned out to be Rodolfo and David Flomar. On February 2002, elements of the Philippine National Police (PNP) conducted a search warrant operation in Barangay Bongabong, Nueva Era which resulted in the arrest of Rodolfo Flomar and Agulay after a brief gun battle. David Flomar died in the shootout. Recovered from the three were an M-16 rifle and two carbines. The eyewitness’ testimony was strengthened by the seizure of the high-powered rifles as ballistic tests showed that these were the same guns used in the Banna shooting incident. Meanwhile, the other co-accused is still being hunted. Tolentino is facing other crime charges in Mindoro while Madarang’s whereabouts are still unknown. Leilanie G. Adriano
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