Ex-NPA Leader Gets 20 Years for Robbery-Homicide

VIRAC, Catanduanes, July 15- Gilbert Ebo, a former New People's Army (NPA) commander, became a member of the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) of the Philippine Army (PA), but he confessed killing last February a man and a woman after robbing them of their cash and valuables in the nearby San Miguel town.

Presiding Judge Lelu Contreras of Virac Regional Trial Court (RTC) sentenced Ebo and Ricky de Mesa, who is also a former NPA rebel-turned CAFGU personnel, with 20 years straight imprisonment.

Contreras also ruled that the two ex-NPAs should indemnify the victims' heirs with P300,000 each.

The other two accused, Vir Ian Lunas, 21 and Janedy Agulto, 20, who were also members of the CAFGU, pleaded not guilty.

They would face trials while detained with no bail recommended at the Catanduanes Provincial Jail.

Court records showed that in the early morning of February 12 this year, Ebo, armed with an M-16 Armalite rifle along with De Mesa and the two other accused, flagged down a passenger jeepney while negotiating the national road between Barangays Boton and Katipunan of San Miguel town.

Aboard the passenger vehicle driven by Perfecto Mendoza were passengers Salvacion Tatel, Igmedio Teves, Salve Olapani and Tessie Potazo.

After ordering the passengers to take off their clothes and alight the vehicle, De Mesa punctured its wheels using a military knife.

As the group was divesting the victims of their cash and valuables, Ebo shot Mendoza in the head, causing the latter's instant death.

One of the accused stabbed Tatel to death while the other passengers escaped death by jumping into a deep ravine, swimming across a river below and climbing rocks on its bank to reach the other side.

Olapani was wounded and dying when found floating at the river, but survived after spending three weeks at the Catanduanes Provincial Hospital.

During the preliminary and pre-trial conference of the case, Ebo and De Mesa entered a plea of guilty to the crime as charged, with the court considering their voluntary surrender and the prosecution agreeing to a penalty of 20 years plus the civil liability of P300,000 each.

"They are fortunate as they would suffer in prison for 20 years while my three little children will have no father for the rest of their lives", Tessie Mendoza, the widow of the slain driver said in grief upon hearing of the court decision.

They deserved death penalty, she cried.

The duo will be swiftly transferred to the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City to serve their sentence, a provincial jail officer said.

Ebo was NPA commander, operating in the province when he was captured and taken into the CAFGU on agreement that he would cooperate with the military in its anti-insurgency campaign, an official of the Philippine Army said.

He was on his 10th year with the communist rebel movement when captured and on his sixth month with the CAFGU when he committed the crime.

"The criminal instinct and culture of violence implanted on Ebo by the teachings of the NPA were still in him when he performed that barbaric crime against innocent and defenseless civilians," the judge said in his decision. (PNA)