Ex-NPA sentenced to 40 yrs for 1988 kidnap of military judge

A suspected member of the New People’s Army (NPA) on Tuesday was sentenced to a maximum of 40 years imprisonment by a Quezon City court for the abduction of a former military judge eighteen years ago. In an 8-page decision, QC regional trial court branch 81 Judge Ma. Theresa Yadao found the accused, Martin Villanueva, alias ‘Ka Bragat,’ guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of kidnapping and serious illegal detention. Records showed that the accused together with 32 of his comrades abducted Major Hobart Cocadiz, former judge officer of the Judge Advocate General Services on October 21, 1988 in Barangay Tabugon, Calauag Quezon while waiting for a jeepney ride to his farm. Cocadiz testified that the NPA rebels detained him in various places in the nearby municipality of Tagkawayan, Quezon and in Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur for 140 days. Cocadiz was released from captivity on March 7, 1989 to his wife and brother who were accompanied by a Bishop Marquez and former Calauag mayor Roger Regala. The victim stressed that during his captivity, he was neither hurt nor ransom money was demanded from his family. The accused, on the other hand, admitted that he was a member of the NPA and was ordered by his superiors to “arrest" Cocadiz to ask him about the Geneva Convention. Court records showed that the trial of the case started only on May 5, 2000 at the Calauag, Quezon RTC Branch 63. The accused was arrested only on February 14, 2000. The case was transferred to the QCRTC after the Supreme Court granted the petition for change of venue filed by the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP). In her decision, Judge Yadao explained that after a careful and judicious review and scrutiny of the evidence of both the prosecution and the defense, the court found the prosecution has duly established the essential elements of kidnapping and serious illegal detention. “Major Cocadiz positively identified accused Villanueva as one of the kidnappers and even conveyed to the court that he had seen him from the time he was seized, transported and held captive by them," Judge Yadao added.-GMANEWS.TV