Supreme Court affirms convictions in 1998 abduction, slay of physician, retired soldier

The Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed the conviction of three people for the abduction and killing of a physician in 1998.

At the same time, the SC acquitted the three plus four other people for the murder of retired Major Igmedio Arcega, who had gone missing a day after the doctor, Eliezer Andres, Sr., was kidnapped. Only the conviction of one person was affirmed.

In a Nov. 11 decision, the SC Second Division found Zaldy Bernardo, Monroy Flores, and Mila Andres Galamay guilty of kidnapping for ransom with homicide in the Andres case and sentenced them to reclusion perpetua without eligibility for parole, affirming a prior decision by the Court of Appeals (CA).

The case against Danny Cortez was dismissed because of his death in 2016.

On the other hand, the SC acquitted Bernardo, Flores, Galamay, Jesus Time, Gilbert Pacpaco, Gilbert Ramirez, and Tommy Cabesa of murder in the Arcega case.

Only Rogelio Antonio, who had made a sworn statement recounting Arcega's killing and implicating his co-accused, was convicted.

The case stemmed from the disappearance of Andres after he and Arcega separately met with a group of people selling gold bars in Sta. Lucia Mall in Cainta, Rizal on July 2, 1998. Arcega went missing the following day.

Andres' family soon received a demand for a P10-million ransom. With police close by, Andres' son met with a group of people in Manila on July 4, to pay the ransom. Police arrested Bernardo, Pacpaco, Time, and Ramirez as soon as the exchange was completed.

Officers followed Cabesa, who had sped away with the money, to Caloocan City where they found him with Flores, Antonio, and Cortez. The four were also arrested.

Antonio subsequently confessed that he and his co-accused were behind the kidnapping and that Andres was already dead and his car was brought to Norzagaray, Bulacan and burned. Andres' body was found in Laguna.

Antonio also said Arcega was killed in a farm in Jalajala, Rizal.

The Pasig Regional Trial Court convicted the accused in 2011, and the CA upheld its decision in 2017. Only Bernardo, Flores, Cortez, and Galamay appealed before the SC.

But the High Court said it found no reason to overturn the lower courts' findings in the Andres kidnapping for ransom with homicide case because there was no showing that they "overlooked, misunderstood, or misapplied the surrounding facts and circumstances of the case."

But in the Arcega case, the SC said there was a "glaring dearth of evidence showing the participation" of the accused in a plan or conspiracy to abduct and kill the retired major.

"As such, Antonio's statement in his July 8 Salaysay is binding on him alone; it cannot be admitted against his co-accused and is considered as hearsay against them," the SC said.

The decision was written by Senior Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe, with concurrences from Associate Justices Alexander Gesmundo, Amy Lazaro-Javier, Mario Lopez, and Ricardo Rosario. — BM, GMA News