Cataingan, Masbate RTC dismiss red-tagging murder raps filed against three Masbate broadcasters

Masbate City- One down, one to go.

The Cataingan, Masbate Regional Trial Court has dismissed the murder case filed against nine men including three Masbate City broadcasters for the killing of one Virgil Arriesgado on August 12, 2022, a slaying said to have been staged by communist rebel-members of the New People’s Army (NPA).

In a three-page decision issued last August 30 by Cataingan, Masbate RTC branch 49, presiding judge Teofilo Tambago ordered the murder case filed against Masbate City-based media men Ramesis Sison, Benjamin Gigante and Jay Alfaro dismissed for lack of probable cause.

Sison and Gigante are current members while Alfaro was a former member of the Masbate City-based Masbate Quad Media Society, Inc. (MQMSI), a group of media workers who are currently engaged in an ongoing crusade to expose a long and still growing list of alleged ghost infrastructure projects conducted by the Masbate provincial local government unit (LGU) led by Gov. Antonio Kho in 2022 and 2023.

Also included as accused in the murder case were Barry Canete, Peter Corpus, Jay-R Compuesto, Pascualito Guenezo alias Pipong, Paul Pangantijon alias Bobong and Pel Munaris.

It was learned that in the murder complaint filed by Masbate provincial prosecutor Jeremias Mapula last July 2, the three media men were identified as “alias Ramsis Sison”, Ben Gigante, and “Jhay Alfaro”.

Also last July 2, Mapula had filed another information on a murder case for the killing of one Richard Bauso last April 6 where Gigante and Alfaro were named as accused. Also included as respondents in the Bauso murder case were Benjie Naraja alias Ka Rem, and Reymund Dosdos alias Ka RM.

The murder cases against the MQMSI members has turned up after they filed graft and plunder complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman late last year and earlier this year against Masbate provincial officials led by Gov. Antonio Kho over a string of ghost road opening, road rehabilitation and grael-laying projects in Masbate province in 2022 and 2023.

Since the Bauso and the Arriesgado murder cases have both been tagged by police as handiwork of the NPA, the accusation of the media men’s involvement in both killings had effectively tagged them as communist-terrorist group (CTG) members of the NPA and their arrest will deprive them of the right to bail during investigation and trial.

In his decision, Judge Tambago had noted the glaring inconsistencies and conflicting statements made by the case complainant Wenito Armenion and witnesses Kar Masarque and Semion Rabadon in their testimonies identifying the nine respondents or accused as involved in the Arriesgado murder two years ago and all nine being their co-members in the NPA.

It was learned that the Pio V. Corpus Municipal Police Station had previously filed a murder complaint against a different group of people, specifically five persons namely Masarque, Rabadon, now the prosecution witness in the case, along with Glen Paguntalan alias Bruno, Barry Canete and Jay-R Compuesto. The Pio V. Corpus Police’s lone witness in the previous case was Armenion. Armenion had filed an affidavit of recantation with desistance regarding his earlier tagging of Masarque, Rabadon and Paguntalan as among those involved in the killing of Arriesgado.

“With their testimonies and their demeanor in testifying, this Court is convinced that probable cause does not exist against all the accused, thus the case warrants DISMISSAL,” the judge ruled in his decision.

“For lack of probable cause, the case is ordered DISMISSED,” Tambago ordered.