Mayor tagged as brains behind cockpit massacre in N.Ecija

GAPAN CITY, Nueva Ecija – Three-term Mayor Ernesto Natividad of this city was identified as the brains behind the killing of five persons, including the two sons of a political rival, in an attack inside a cockpit arena here three years ago. Natividad faces multiple murder charges at the Sandiganbayan, the Office of the Ombudsman having found probable cause against him based on testimonies of Cristina Pascual of Barangay Pambuan. Pascual is the wife of Rodrigo "Boy""Pascual who ran against Natividad but lost by landslide in the 2007 mayoral elections. Five persons were killed, including the Pascual couple’s sons Erickson and Ebertson, when some 20 heavily armed men stormed the Gapan Coliseum and Cockpit Arena owned by the Pascuals and fired at them during a derby on March 20, 2006. Besides Natividad, 23 others were charged for complicity in the multiple murder case – Dalia Cruz, Jobert Dumlao, Crisanto Mateo, Dennis Matias, Romeo Natividad, Ricardo Peralta, Randy Puno, Lorenzo Rueda, and several John Does. Another witness, Virgilio Malgapo, said that the broad daylight attack was politically motivated. He said his wife’s cousin, Peralta, contacted him and asked him to open the gate of the cockpit to allow the assassins to get in. Malgapo claimed he was later taken to Natividad’s house where the mayor handed to him P20,000 as "downpayment." As ordered, Malgapo opened the gate and the armed men raided the compound. Malgapo was also shot in the head but survived. Fearing for his life, Malgapo went into hiding and asked help from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police. Natividad told newsmen that they would file a motion for reconsideration. He said that the case against him was tainted by politics, but he refused to elaborate. "I have a clean conscience," he said, adding the people of Gapan know him and his family to be a peace-loving people. He said Malgapo was an aide of Pascual and that his claim that it was he (Natividad) who gave him the P20,000 was incredible. "Tanga ka ba naman ikaw ang mastermind ikaw pa ang magbibigay ng pera [Would a mastermind be so stupid that he himself would be the one to give you the money?]" he said. – Ronald Leander, GMANews.TV