Two men admit crime to cops: Student’s rob-slay solved in five days

Swift justice.

Five days after the robbery and killing of a senior nursing student Ruby Jade Ruba, three suspects were finally arrested one after the other in two days until yesterday, two of whom owned up to the crime while the third one denied involvement.

The arrested suspects were 18-year-old Mark Anthony Gabriel Labitad, resident of Ponce Compound at sitio OPRRA in barangay Capitol Site, 20-year-old Ivan “Epeng” Marabat, of Unit 4 in barangay Kalunasan. Both owned up to the crime when presented to the media by the police after the arrest.

The third suspect, 21-year-old Carl Marx Carticiano, a neighbor of Labitad, was tagged as the driver of the motorcycle used during the robbery and the alleged keeper of the gun used in killing the student.

He however denied he was with the two at the time of the incident.

The police said that Labitad and Marabat are top men of the street gang Crips, each with the title of OG (for “original gangsta”) given to officers and pioneers of the gang in Cebu.

Both have “BK 187” tattooed on their upper right arms, which they said means “Bloods Killers 187,” in reference to the Bloods gang, a rival gang of the Crips.

Cebu City Police director, Sr. Supt. Patrocinio Comendador, created Task Force Ruby Jade Ruba led by Sr. Insp. George Ylanan to solve the case.

Members of the task force got from various sources some pictures of members of gangs in the city. These were used to trace some crime personalities and investigators were able to find a link to the Ruba rob-slay case.

Police made the arrest after gathering information from several members of the gang who had been bragging about what their OGs did to the nursing student last week.

Labitad was arrested at his house on Sunday noon with the help of barangay Capitol Site councilman Alburo Pantit while Marabat fell to the police yesterday dawn at the gang’s billiards hall hangout on B. Rodriguez St.

Carticiano, upon learning that he was implicated to the crime, went to the CCPO with his older brother and his own witness, a 17-year-old member of Crips, to deny his participation. Carticiano insisted that the motorcycle used in the crime and is now in police custody, was owned by his other older brother, that its registration was already expired, and that his brother does not allow him to use the vehicle.

Marabat admitted he was the one who shot Ruba with a .38 caliber revolver when she ran and shouted for help. He however partly blamed his actions to Labitad, who he said ordered him to shoot the student.

Labitad claimed that, during their escape, he covered the plate number of the blue (not red, as earlier reported) Suzuki motorcycle to cover their tracks from witnesses.

Ylanan told The Freeman that the three were positively identified by about five witnesses, including a friend of Ruba, who saw the incident and tried to help the victim, but had to scamper away when the assailants pointed guns at them.

The police also wanted Ruba’s friend, who shouted for help at the time, to go to the CPPO and help identify the suspects.

The arrest of the Labitad, Marabat, and Carticiano prompted the police to put off the hook the three other suspects that they had arrested earlier and investigated for possible involvement in the case.

Earlier reports stated that only two robbers attacked Ruba but witnesses said there was a third person who acted as back-up.

Labitad and Marabat said they, along with Carticiano, came from drinking beer at a billiard hall on B. Rodriguez. They decided to go home on a motorcycle driven by Carticiano.

They passed by Governor Roa Street and according to the two, it was Carticiano who saw Ruba and her friend texting by the side of the road. Carticiano allegedly stopped the motorcycle and told Labitad and Marabat “daugon ta na (we’ll rob her).”

Out of being inebriated at the time, the two said they did not hesitate to approach the two women and declared a holdup. After grabbing the cellphone from Ruba, the women scampered away and this, the suspects said, rattled them as they fired shots at the fleeing women, and hit Ruba in the back.

Labitad, Marabat, and Carticiano were charged for robbery with homicide while the police also plans to indict Marabat’s neighbor, Maria Baswa, 31, who allegedly bought the stolen cellphone of Ruba for P3,000.

Baswa, in an interview with The Freeman, said she did not buy anything from the suspects the past few days. The last time she bought something from them was last year when the wife of a Crips member was about to give birth and the gang needed cash for her delivery.

The 20-year-old Ruba was a native of Macrohon in Southern Leyte, and was a graduating nursing student of the Cebu Doctor’s University.

She was with a friend at Capitol Site to borrow a laptop adaptor from their classmate there. The cellphone that the robbers stole from her was worth P5,000. She was shot in the back and the bullet exited through her left chest and wrist. She died while being treated at the hospital.

Comendador admitted earlier that the rob-slay of Ruba made a big dent to the peace and order situation in the city but yesterday, after the arrest of the suspects, said the incident was after all not reflective of the community because there are still many people who felt safe during the ght after observing the streets every night after the Ruba incident.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday lashed at the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, saying the lawyers’ group seemed inconsistent in making a stand against criminality, considering its silence over the robbery and killing of Ruba.

Osmeña said he wondered why the IBP was silent in contrast to the time when people with criminal records were killed by the so-called vigilantes in the city.

“It’s just an observation. When a policeman is killed in the line of duty, the IBP says nothing.  When a girl is mercilessly slaughtered, the IBP says nothing. When a suspected criminal gets killed, they scream like hell,” the mayor said.

Osmeña said there has not been any word of sympathy from the IBP since Ruba was killed on Wednesday last week.

She was supposed to graduate with 500 others on March 30.

“There’s not even a word of sympathy from the IBP…but when a suspected criminal gets shot down, they scream like it’s the most heinous crime ever committed in the city,” Osmeña said.

And with the death of yet another former inmate Saturday evening, the mayor said he is expecting the IBP to make noises again and blame the vigilantes for the shooting.

“I just want to point that out…so now I guess the IBP is very happy because they have another cause to rally,” he said.

Charles Siegberto, 32, was shot dead by two men on a motorcycle Saturday evening, a month after he was released from the Cebu City Jail for illegal drugs.

Police are still eyeing illegal drugs as a possible motive behind the shooting while investigators found some shabu from victim. Siegberto was said to be just texting outside his house in Purok 3 Upper, barangay Camputhaw when the suspects approached him and shot him twice in the head.

The assailant, who was wearing a crash helmet and sunglasses, returned to a waiting motorcycle and fled from the scene. Siegberto’s death raised anew some apprehensions that vigilantes are back. At least 180 former convicts and inmates, and those with pending criminal cases were shot dead from December 22, 2004 to the middle of 2006.

Meanwhile, Osmeña clarified that contrary to an editorial, the city government continues to give support to the city police. He said that he was encouraged by the recent accomplishments of the city police and that he may give them additional benefits. /RAE