Raps vs 2 suspects in reporter’s slay junked

BALANGA CITY, Philippines – They got the wrong guys.

The City Prosecutor’s Office here dismissed yesterday the murder charges that police investigators had filed against two suspects in the killing of news correspondent Nerlie Ledesma of the tabloid Abante last Jan. 8.

Inquest Prosecutor Geraldine Layaan said there is no probable cause against the suspects after the witness failed to identify principal suspect Inocencio Bendo as the gunman.

The gunman was reportedly wearing a bonnet, helmet and sunglasses during the shooting incident.

Layaan asked the police to provide more plausible evidence to establish the participation of the accused in the murder case.

Police authorities earlier filed murder charges against Bendo, 39, alias Bandio, of Sitio Torres, Barangay San Juan in Samal, Bataan, and another suspect, Juan Fulo, 46, alias Boboy, a barangay tanod of Phase l Tagnai Subdivision of Sitio San Rafael, Barangay Tuyo, Balanga City.

Police Inspector Jennifer Cruz, public information officer of the Bataan police, told The STAR that criminal charges were filed against the two suspects before the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.

Cruz said Bendo – reportedly a former a member of the Rebulosyunaryong Hukbong Bayan (RHB) – was arrested last Jan. 9 after two witnesses recognized the suspect based on the artist’s sketches of the gunman who killed Ledesma.

Ledesma was killed near her house while she was waiting for a tricycle on her way to the Bataan Provincial Information Office at the provincial capitol in Balanga.

Ledesma, 47, was reportedly shot at close range by motorcycle-riding suspects near her house at Tagnai Subdivision, Barangay Tuyo in Balanga.

Fulo was arrested last Jan. 10 during a follow-up operation in Barangay Capitangan, Abucay town. Police recovered a caliber .45 pistol from the suspect.

Police are investigating the alleged dispute among officials of three local homeowners’ associations over the sale of a five-hectare land owned by Leonardo David that was subdivided into lots being sold to interested buyers. Ledesma was a president of one of the homeowners’ groups.

The lots measuring about 50 square meters each are being sold for P180,000 per lot by officers and members of the three homeowners’ associations.– With Ric Sapnu