Wife of slain top gov't counsel charged

The wife of murdered Government Corporate Counsel Macario Valerio was charged with parricide by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) before the Department of Justice yesterday.

No bail was recommended for Milagros Valerio, who is also known as Marimar and Myla, because the offense carries a maximum penalty of death.

NBI Director Federico Opinion Jr. confirmed the filing of charges against Mrs. Valerio but refused to elaborate, saying a press conference is scheduled for today to announce that the case has been solved.

Valerio's alleged co-conspirator and lover, Antonio Cabador, a General Santos City policeman, was charged with murder, along with their alleged cohorts, Martin Jimenez, Samuel Baran, and Geronimo Quintana, alias Boy Negro.

Cabador remains at large, while Valerio, Jimenez, and Quintana are under the NBI's custody.

Jimenez, the alleged gunman, was also charged with illegal possession of firearms since NBI agents seized an unlicensed caliber .38 revolver from him after his arrest.

Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Severino Gana said four witnesses saw Jimenez shoot Valerio several times and that a fifth witness spotted three people acting as lookouts.

The five witnesses are under the NBI's protective custody.

The NBI alleged that Valerio was the mastermind in the killing of her husband and that her motive was "to have her husband's entire inheritance all to herself."

She is alleged to have planned to use the money to be able to live a life of luxury with Cabador after they get "married within six months" after her husband's death.

After Valerio's arrest, the NBI is set to close the investigation of the murder of former Lanao del Norte representative Mario Hisuler, best friend of the late government corporate counsel.

Sources said the NBI has long suspected that the murder of Hisuler was connected with the killing of Valerio and that Mrs. Valerio was involved in the two murders.

The suspicion of investigators that Valerio had a hand in her husband's murder was heightened after Hisuler was gunned down while visiting Valerio's tomb at the Jaen cemetery in Nueva Ecija last April 30.

NBI sources said nobody knew that Hisuler was going to Nueva Ecija except Valerio and the other lawyers who had accompanied them.

The gunman targeted Hisuler, sources added.

"We have been very suspicious of Valerio's wife since the start because of her strange actions during and after the wake of Valerio, but we did not question her because she might get offended, considering that her husband just died," NBI sources said.

Valerio was killed in front of his house in Barangay Piñahan in Quezon City in the early morning of March 18.