Baron Cervantes’ killer gets life

The primary suspect in the killing of Young Officers’ Union spokesman Baron Cervantes was sentenced to reclusion perpetua yesterday by the Las Piñas City regional trial court.

The Cervantes family, however, did not gain satisfaction from the verdict because the people believed to be the masterminds behind the murder have yet to be brought to justice.

In a special promulgation at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City, Las Piñas Judge Bonifacio Sanz Maceda sentenced Joseph Mostrales to 20 to 40 years imprisonment.

Mostrales, in a videotaped confession, admitted that he shot Cervantes in the head at pointblank range on Dec. 31, 2001 in front of a convenience store in Las Piñas City.

The court also found two of Mostrales’ cohorts — Erlindo Torres, who drove the getaway vehicle, and Jaime Centeno, who conducted surveillance of Cervantes’ home before the murder — guilty as accomplices to the killing.

Torres and Centeno, whose confessions of their participation in the Cervantes murder were consistent with each other, were sentenced to eight to 14 years in jail.

Mostrales, Centeno and Torres were ordered to pay the Cervantes family a total of P343,958 in actual, moral and exemplary damages.

In his verdict, Maceda said he considers the statements made by the convicts during custodial interrogation as "extrajudicial confessions." However, Maceda also noted that these extrajudicial confessions only bind "the confessant, but (do) not bind his co-conspirators" because the statements were "taken in a private atmosphere under proceedings not open to the public."

During the court hearings, however, the three accused retracted their confessions. Mostrales, who was also earlier convicted of kidnapping, claimed he was in Pangasinan on the date and at the time of the killing and said he only confessed to murdering Cervantes because he had been tortured.

However, lawyer Confesor Sansano, the public attorney who assisted the convicts when they made their confessions, said there were no evident signs of torture on Mostrales’ body.

"As to cigarette burns I was trying to look for, there were none, but there was a scar on his belly," Sansano said. "I asked him where (Mostrales) got it and he said it was from a vehicular accident."

The prosecution panel led by lawyer Leonard de Vera presented the convenience store security guard who witnessed the shooting.

Mitchel Cataluña positively identified Mostrales as the triggerman armed with a .9 mm pistol. Cataluña confirmed that Cervantes was shot at close range, with Mostrales standing just two arms’ lengths away from Cervantes.

In Mostrales’ videotaped confession, he identified police Superintendent Rafael Cardeno, YOU chairman, and former Land Transportation office (LTO) executive Santiago Camacho, as the masterminds behind the murder.

Mostrales said he had communicated with Cardeno using a cellular phone. He also said Cardeno personally ordered him to kill Cervantes.

Cardeno was represented before the court by lawyer Homobono Adaza. He and Camacho remain at large despite the fact that the Muntinlupa court has issued warrants for their arrest.

"The court would have been ready to resolve the cases of Cardeno and Camacho if only they had been arraigned," the Las Piñas judge said in his decision.

While the court’s verdict dealt with the man who actually pulled the trigger of the gun used to kill Cervantes, the victim’s family expected more and were disappointed when police failed to arrest the suspected masterminds of the murder.

"We were happy because there is justice after all," Cervantes’ brother, Lloyd, said. "But this decision is only the beginning."

Despite a continuous stream of tears throughout the proceedings, Baron’s mother, Caroline, managed to thank the people who supported her and prayed for the arrest of Cardeno and Camacho.

Dante Jimenez, founder and leader of the group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, said the VACC rejoiced over the Las Piñas court’s decision but vowed his group will do everything it can to help the police arrest the suspected masterminds.

The VACC challenged Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. to produce Cardeno — a bold promise Ebdane made a year ago that remains unfulfilled.

The prosecution panel had expressed concern over the safety of the convicts, whom they said may serve as witnesses against the masterminds of the Cervantes slay.