The murder of an innocent barangay tanod and habal-habal driver by an alleged killer who is a policeman in Ubay last month now seems haunted by fear of uncertain justice. The victim’s family and officials of barangay Pag-asa have themselves started to feel this fear however they cling to their hope. Jocelyn Cuyacot, wife of murder victim Luis Cuyacot, Jr., did not even have a cheap lawyer in the clarificatory hearing of the instant case at the Provincial Prosecution Office here the other week. Eyewitnesses positively identified PO3 Agapito Acuña as the gunman who shot Cuyacot dead at Ubay public market near the v-hire terminal in the evening of September 8 this year. But the Camp Dagohoy crime laboratory analysis on the paraffin casts taken from both hands of the policeman-suspect yielded negative for gunpowder nitrates.

The Ubay police took the specimen from the suspect and submitted it to the camp for paraffin test. Right outside the Hall of Justice here after the fiscal’s clarificatory hearing on October 13, Acuña handed money to two fellow Ubay cops who escorted the victim’s wife and two witnesses. Barangay Pag-asa captain Sarami Golisno identified one of the escorting cops as police officer Rotol, who she said even thanked Acuña for the money, a P500 bill. Rotol was driving the Ubay police patrol car so that the other cop beside him on the front seat received the money, according to Golosino. It occurred in the very presence of the murdered tanod’s wife, barangay official, and prosecution witnesses Eleazon Boyles and Johnrel Orias. Cuyacot, who also sustained his family as a habal-habal driver, was a barangay tanod of Golosino unti his brutal death.

The alleged killer was in police uniform when he gave money to his fellow cops, Golosino said. Boyles, also a habal-habal driver, claimed in his affidavit that Acuña just shot Cuyacot while the latter was seeing his fellow drivers playing dama at the market on the eve of September 8. Shortly earlier, Acuna arrived in the area where the habal-habal drivers were playing dama while awaiting passengers. Witnesses identified the policeman as “Pitong,” Acuña’s nickname, who then called Cuyacot and asked him of the whereabout of a habal-habal driver whom the cop described as “dark, of heavy build.” Cuyacot replied that the driver he was looking for had already gone home, which angered Acuña, according to Boyles. Cuyacot then got back to his fellow drivers and squatted beside orias, who was playing dama with Boyles, while the policeman followed and stood beside Boyles.

The cop was facing Orias and Cuyacot. Minutes later, Acuña suddenly fired his gun, hitting Cuyacot, who was rushed to the town hospital but died hours later. The policeman pleaded not guilty in the clarificatory hearing conducted by 2 nd Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Eric Ucat at the Hall of Justice here, according to Golosino. The lady captain accompanied the wife of her murdered tanod and the witnesses aboard the Ubay police patrol car all the way to the justice hall in Tagbilaran City on the hearing day. They were escorted by two policemen, one of them Rotol who drove the patrol car. Another Ubay cop, PO2 Wendell Evardo, was also summoned by the fiscal as a prosecution witness. He came on his own, not riding the police car barded by the civilian witnesses.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

The victim’s wife, barangay captain, civilian witnesses and their two police escorts were already leaving the Hall of Justice aboard the patrol car after the hearing when Rotol stopped the vehicle. Golosino said Acuña texted Rrotol to drive back to the justice hall because he had something to give to his fellow policemen, which turned out to be money. The barangay captain said they had no idea what the money was for, and that the cops who escorted them just thanked the accused cop-killer.. Golosino revealed that when the murder complaint was first filed in Talibon, Rotol allegedly asked P1,000 from the victim’s wife for patrol car’s fuel. She gave her only money of P500. A barangay kagawad of Golosino named Simplicia Autentico who escorted the victim’s wife texted the captain about the demand of the policeman. Golosino said he replied to Autentico to ask the Ubay mayor for fuel assistance since she had no money herself.

Upon learning this, Rotol instantly told Autentico not to ask help from the mayor because the money that the policeman asked “was actually intended for the witnesses,” Golosino said. On the day of the clarificatory hearing, Rotol again allegedly asked the murder victim’s wife P1,500 for patrol car’s fuel. Golosino said only P1,000 was given to the policeman because all they had was only P1,5000, which was contributed by the barangay council and tanods. LEGAL AID NEEDED The barangay captain said they planned to seek public attorney’ s assistance in their quest for justice for the slain tanod. Golosino confided that they, including the victim’s wife herself, have not even been given a copy of the compliant sheet filed at the fiscal’s office by the Ubay police against its own member.

This writer could not get the side of the Ubay policemen, especially Rotol and the murder suspect himself, but was able to briefly see Rotol and the witnesses while their patrol car briefly parked beside Plaza Rizal here on their way to the clarificatory hearing. Allegations of money given by the murder suspect to the escorting cops and those they demanded from the victim’s wife were yet unknown to the media that time. Still, this writer asked Rotol and his fellow escorting cop for a copy of the complaint sheet, but they said all copies had been submitted to the fiscal and they had yet to get one in the hearing. In an interview here days later, Golosino said the Ubay police had not given the victim’s wife any copy even after the hearing for yet unknown reason. The barangay captain herself asked the police chief but was told that Rotol had the copies of the complaint and accompanying police blotter extract.

Golisno was interviewd by this writer when she attended the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) Provincial Congress at Bohol Tropics here last Wednesday. Also, Golosino bared that as barangay captain of the slain tanod, she had not been aware of the negative paraffin test result. She then discovered that a witness had a copy of it from the police but only when they were about to leave Ubay for the fiscal’s hearing in the city. Based on the Camp Dagohoy crime laboratory report, the specimen that yielded negative for gunpowder burns---the paraffin casts taken from both hands of Acuña---was “submitted” by the Ubay police for testing right on “October 9,” a day after the crime. The sole family breadwinner, the murdered barangay tanod and habal-habal driver also left six helpless young children whose eldest is yet aged 10 and youngest just less than one year old. (Ven rebo Arigo)