DOJ summons Dingalan mayor

The Department of Justice ordered yesterday Dingalan, Aurora Mayor Jaime Ylarde and two other men tagged in the murder of newspaper publisher Philip Agustin to appear before the DOJ to shed light on the case.

State Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco subpoenaed Ylarde to appear on May 27 in a preliminary hearing along with alleged gunman Nilo "Boyet" Morete and another suspect, Manuel Alday, who are both still at large.

The subpoena is based on the statement made by Reynaldo Morete, Boyet’s cousin, who said that hours before Agustin’s murder, Boyet had asked him if he knew the publisher.

"If you see Agustin, point him out to me. He must be taken out because he has earned the mayor’s ire, because he is always being attacked in the press," Morete quoted Boyet as saying.

He also said that when he asked his cousin about the identity of "the mayor," Boyet replied, "Mayor Ylarde."

Morete, who is now in the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), claimed his cousin is well known as a hired killer in their hometown of Dingalan.

Velasco said Morete appeared to be less guilty and they would study the possibility of putting him under the government’s witness protection program.

However, Senior Superintendent Pedro Tango, chief of the Philippine National Police’s Task Force Newsman, told reporters that Morete’s allegations are considered hearsay "because we have no evidence yet to link the mayor" to the crime and that the second-hand account would not stand up in court.

He explained that before any charges can be filed in court, investigators need the testimony of a person who directly heard or had personal knowledge of the alleged assassination plot by Ylarde.

Ylarde had served as police chief of Dingalan until 1995, when he ran for vice mayor, a post he held for two consecutive terms until he ran and won as mayor in the last local polls.

Police, however, were quick to say that Ylarde’s status as former policeman would not shield him from facing charges for Agustin’s murder if the evidence warrants.

"We base our investigation on evidence and not on theory or hearsay. Morete only heard the information from his cousin," an investigator said.

Not a violent man

After being tagged as the mastermind in Agustin’s murder, Ylarde said yesterday he would surrender himself to authorities "only to clear my name."

"Hindi ako ganyang tao na nabuhay sa marahas na paraan (I am not the kind of person who lives by violence)," Ylarde said in a phone interview.

He said he is willing to undergo investigation should the need arise, but added he has not yet received an invitation from law enforcers handling the Agustin case.

"They don’t have to arrest me, I will give myself up. I want all things cleared as soon as possible," Ylarde said.

He insisted he had nothing to do with the murder of Agustin, publisher and editor of the Starline Times Recorder, who was shot dead in his home in Barangay Paltic, Dingalan last May 10.

Ylarde said he has asked his men to track down Boyet and Alday, his alleged accomplice. The two suspects are reportedly still hiding in the forests around Sitio Kagudu, Barangay Labney in Mayantoc, Tarlac.

"I really want to talk to them to know what really happened, but so far, my men have failed to establish any contact with them," he said.

Ylarde said Morete’s statement, on which the DOJ’s subpoena is based, could mean the suspects decided to commit the murder on their own initiative.

For Aurora police chief Senior Superintendent Amador Pabustan, Agustin’s murder "is now a closed case."

"We have identified the killers and all we have to do is arrest the other two still at large. All the requirements to build up the murder case before the court already exist, and so the case is closed as far as the provincial command is concerned," he said.

Senior Superintendent Perfecto Palad, who heads Task Force Agustin, said Ylarde’s movements are now being monitored as part of a "routine measure." No order has been made for the mayor’s arrest, he added.

As of yesterday, the task force had not received the NBI’s report on its interrogation of Morete, although the media had reported that Morete confessed to Ylarde’s alleged involvement.

Palad, however, said Morete’s statement could not be used against Ylarde unless there was direct testimony implicating the mayor as the mastermind in Agustin’s killing.

Palad also said three teams of the task force, each with seven members, continue to comb the forests of Sitio Kagudu in search of Boyet and Alday.

"We don’t think they have left the area," he said, noting that the forest is also home to the Aetas, a cultural minority, and infested with communist rebels from the New People’s Army.

As this developed, Chief Superintendent Alejandro Lapinid, Central Luzon police director, offered a total of P100,000 in cash as a reward for anyone who gives information on the whereabouts of Boyet and Alday. Each suspect now carries a P50,000 bounty on his head.

A follow-up operation last Sunday failed to catch Boyet. However, NBI agents and task force personnel arrested Aries Domingo, Boyet’s alleged aide, in Mayantoc, Tarlac during the same operation. Boyet was about to meet up with his father but instructed Domingo to go in his stead.

Ylarde was among the references Boyet had listed in his job résumé. Alday, who also listed the mayor as a reference, was a known supporter of Ylarde and a former employee of the Dingalan town hall.

At the time he was killed, Agustin had just arrived from Cabanatuan City with about 500 copies of his newspaper containing stories on the alleged misuse of funds intended for the resettlement and rehabilitation of landslide victims.

Aurora Gov. Bellaflor Angara said in a telephone interview that she had ordered an investigation into the alleged anomalies published in Agustin’s newspaper.

"I’d heard about the anomalies for the first time after the flashfloods last year. I was told that the roofs which were blown off the public slaughterhouse were used instead for a cockpit, so I issued a warning," she said.

Agustin had written that Ylarde owned the cockpit and had it rehabilitated even before attending to the resettlement of his constituents whose houses were washed away by the flashfloods. — With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Ding Cervantes, Ric Sapnu