Murder suspect arrested in Barili

CEBU, Philippines - A man accused of killing a lay minister and the minister's wife was arrested yesterday by the police after almost five years of hiding at a southern town of Cebu.

Genovevo Gemillian, 44, a native of Dinas, Zamboanga del Sur, was arrested by elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) - 7 at Barangay Luhod, Barili, Cebu at around noon yesterday.  

Gemillian was accused of killing his cousin, Eugenio Nabasca, a lay minister and his wife Lendy, inside their home in Pagadian City in 2006.

Chief Insp. Fermin Armendarez, team leader of the operation, said they have been looking for the suspect for the past year after they received the arrest warrant from Judge Edelberto Absin of Regional Trial Court Branch 29 of San Miguel, Zamboanga del Sur.

Armendarez said they managed to trace the suspect after they received a tip from a priest from Zamboanga del Sur that Gemillian is somewhere in Barili.

“We verified the information that we received and finally we managed to locate him,” he said.

The suspect, who worked as caretaker for Barangay Luhod Elementary school, was arrested by CIDG-7 operative while he was on his way home. A caliber 38 revolver was recovered from him.   

Gemillian, however, said that he was not in Pagadian City when the victims were killed. “I was working in Dinas when they were killed. I even do not know that they were killed,” he said.

He said he was implicated in the crime because of his previous rift with Nabasca about land shares. “They were asking me to vacate the land which I have been tilling for around 40 years,” he said.

The suspect is currently detained at the CIDG-7 stockade. He will be taken to Zamboanga del Sur later. –(FREEMAN)