By SEN GUINGGUING

DIMIAO.-A conspiracy to murder a barangay captain in Dimiao was busted with the arrest last week of three of the major players including the municipal assessor, her husband and a town policeman. The tranquility of the relatively peaceful eastern town was shattered with the news that a murder taking place April of 2010 was after all a conspiracy aimed to eliminate a political enemy. Senior Supt. Constantino Paul Barot, Jr. , provincial director of the Philippine National Police Bohol Command, announced the arrest of the suspects in a report relayed yesterday to the Post. Supt. Barot said three of the suspects are now in the custody of the Bohol PNP in Camp Dagohoy. He identified the three as PO3 Danilo Banac, couple Rogelio and Editha Banac Cadelina, the Dimiao municipal assessor.

The spouses son identified as Archel Noel Cadelina is at large. He was reportedly implicated in the crime after was tagged as having hosted the conference plotting the killing of the barangay captain. The victim who was the barangay captain of Abihid, Dimiao, was identified as Alexander Bascones, age unknown, married. He was shot with a high caliber firearm resulting in his instant death. According to Dimiao Police Chief Senior Inspector Joseph Berondo, the victim was shot at close range at his house in barangay Abihid, Dimiao two years ago by two men believed to be hired killers. The report of the contract to kill was hazy at best because not even the police chief cannot ascertain how much was the contract money was involved in the hit job. The lid of the two-year old crime was blown up after the gunmen were arrested earlier in separate operations in Carmen town. While the two, identified as Misael Buagas of Montevideo, Carmen town and Danilo Dapar, another suspect of Bicao, also of Carmen, were serving time at the Carmen District Jail, one of them (Buagas) died.

CASE BEFORE RTC-LOAY

Before the arrest of Banac and the Cadelina couple, a case for murder were filed before the Regional Trial Court Branch 50 under Presiding Judge Dionisio Calibo. In an information filed by Rebecca Guillen Ubana, graft investigation and prosecution officer, and the six including Buagas and Dapar were charged with the crime of murder as defined and penalized under Article 248 of the Revised Penal Code. Following the filing of the information, Judge Calibo issued the warrant for the arrest of all the accused including the son of the couple who is at large. He is believed to be in Cagayan de Oro. In an interview yesterday with the Dimiao police chief, he was convinced that the murder was politically motivated as the wife of the policeman linked to the crime was the opponent of the slain barangay captain in the 2010 barangay elections. The wife lost in that electoral fight. Although personal grudge was not discounted as one motive of the crime, still investigators were zeroing in on the political angle. The police chief added that before the murder, a confrontation was held between the victim and the policeman-suspect. According to police reports, the Cadelina spouses were arrested on the strength of the warrant at their residence in barangay Guindaguitan in Dimiao. In the case of PO3 Banac, he was arrested at his residence in barangay Abihid last week. He is presently assigned at the Lila Police Station.