CIDG: ‘Carlwyn Baldo also planned to kill former mayor’

MANILA, Philippines — Aside from allegedly ordering the murder of Ako Bicol party-list representative Rodel Batocabe last month in Daraga, Albay, Carlwyn Baldo when he was vice mayor also wanted to kill mayor Gerry Jaucian in May last year so he could assume the top post in the town, an intelligence officer claimed yesterday.

Chief Supt. Amador Corpus, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) director, said the plot to kill Jaucian did not materialize because the mayor died of lung cancer on May 4 as Baldo was planning the hit.

Corpus said Baldo employed at the time the very same persons he contracted for Batocabe’s murder, promising to pay them P350,000.

“If you remember, (Baldo) was the vice mayor prior to June 2018… the information came from our primary witness,” Corpus said.

He said Emmanuel Judavar, the former henchman of Baldo who backed out due to their falling out in October last year, detailed the information about Baldo’s plots.

Director General Oscar Albayalde, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, said that because the revelations opened a can of worms, they would recommend that the P50-million reward for the solution to Batocabe’s murder be given to Judavar.

He pointed out that the resolution of the Batocabe murder started from Judavar’s revelations, although the PNP is “not closing its doors to other angles” that include an alleged internal rift within the Ako Bicol party.

Albayalde also declared at yesterday’s press briefing that the recovered spent shells at the place where Batocabe and his bodyguard, Senior Police Officer 1 Orlando Diaz, were gunned down matched that of the licensed firearm of self-confessed gunman Henry Yuson.

Quoting a report from the police crime laboratory, he said the 11 shells and five slugs recovered from the crime scene matched Yuson’s .40 caliber pistol.

The result of the examination in the Integrated Ballistics Identification System, he added, would further boost the case against those accused of involvement in Batocabe’s murder.

“Even without the presence of the real firearm, our evidence is strong because it cross-matched… We are now confident that what he (Yuson) was saying is true,” Albayalde said in the briefing.

Yuson earlier confessed to killing the lawmaker on Baldo’s order. Batocabe and Diaz were killed as they were boarding a vehicle after a gift-giving activity for senior citizens in Barangay Burgos last Dec. 22.

Meanwhile, a source from the intelligence community said the murder is also rooted in the never-ending feud resulting from the operation of Small Town Lottery (STL) in Albay.

“Batocabe earned the ire of very powerful people in the province because of his incessant criticism and investigation of the STL, particularly the loss of billions of pesos in revenues on the part of the national government,” the source told The STAR.

It appeared that a day before Batocabe was killed, the congressman visited an official of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and discussed “very sensitive matters.”

“Eliminating Batocabe is like killing two birds with one stone – you get rid of somebody who doesn’t stop prying into the shenanigans in the STL operations and kill a potential mayor who doesn’t dance to your music,” the source added.

He claimed that a provincial government official might have something to do with the murder and that Baldo was a willing accomplice in the crime.

Batocabe started his inquiry into the alleged failure of the STL operations in 2017 after receiving reports that it was being used as fronts for jueteng and other illegal games in the country.

In May that year, Lucky V Prime Enterprises Corp. started operations in Albay after securing a license to operate STL. The firm was then headed by its president, Alex Herman Alemania, and corporate secretary Alexander Javier, both of Quezon province.

But in November 2017, barely six months after they started operating, Alemania was shot by motorcycle-riding gunmen in front of a shopping mall. He survived the murder attempt. Police killed one of his attackers and wounded another in an alleged shootout.

Last August, the PCSO issued Board Resolution 248 canceling Lucky V’s franchise to operate in Albay for failing to remit a total of P259.4 million in monthly sales. It was also discovered that the firm failed to use official tickets or receipts. 

The PCSO board subsequently forfeited Lucky V’s cash bond as penalty and payment for its obligations. 

“I’m sure the authorities are also looking into these things but won’t come out with an official statement unless they have concrete evidence to pin down the bigger fish,” the source said. 

The National Bureau of Investigation expressed willingness to look into all possible angles in the Batocabe slay, including the alleged STL anomalies, when ordered.

Right to question

Daraga Mayor Baldo could still contest the decision of Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) party to withdraw its nomination for his re-election bid in the coming May 13 midterm polls, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said yesterday.

Spokesman James Jimenez noted the poll body’s rules allow Baldo to question the cancellation of his Lakas-CMD Certificate of Nomination and Acceptance (CONA).

“Withdrawal of CONA must be with the consent of the individual. So, we have to get his take on this. If (he agrees), he will become an independent if he decides to continue to run,” he explained.

Jimenez maintained that Lakas-CMD could no longer appoint a substitute for Baldo because the period for this is already over. Baldo is being accused of masterminding the slaying of Batocabe, his rival for the mayoralty post in Daraga.

Yesterday, Comelec law department director Maria Norina Tangaro-Casingal received the letter of Lakas-CMD executive director Bautista Ongpin Jr. revoking the CONA issued to Baldo as the party’s official candidate for mayor of Daraga.  – With Sheila Crisostomo, Rey Galupo

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