Ex-cop, 2 kidnap cohorts get death

A Malabon Regional Trial Court judge yesterday sentenced to death a dismissed police major and two of his nephews for kidnapping and demanding a ransom for a son of a Fil-Chinese billionaire three years ago in Malabon City. Four partners in crime, including the alleged masterminds, all relatives of the victim, remain at large.

The accused demanded from the victim’s family, with interest in imported animal feeds and drugs and medicines, an initial sum of P80 million and $1 million for the victim’s release.

This was reduced to P4million but by then, the victim had escaped without the money reaching the accused.

In his 34-page decision, RTC Judge Emmanuel Laurea of Branch 169, a family court, also ordered Rodolfo Magleo, 40, a former anti-narcotics cop based at PNP Headquarters, Camp Crame dismissed for being Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL), of 213 F. C Tuazon street, Pateros, Rizal; Antonio Ajoc Jr., 27, of Sitio Yagit, Montalban Rizal, and his brother Bryan, 26, a houseboy, both Magleo’s nephews by marriage, to jointly indemnify victim Niño Lorenzo Tobiano, 19, a vet med student of the Gregorio Araneta University Foundation (GAUF) the amount of P50,000 as moral damages. When arraigned, the convicts pleaded not guilty.

Suspects Roger Magleo, Abu Hakim alias Abu Sayyaf, Alex Go and Willy Lopez, the convict’s cohorts, the last two being the alleged masterminds and first cousins of the victim, have not been arraigned and are at large. The court has ordered an alias warrant of arrest issued against them. An alias warrant of arrest is one with no expiry and can be served anything against whom it is issued. Senior State Prosecutor Richard Fadullon handled the case for the victims.

Records showed the young Tobiano was abducted last Aug. 2, 2001, by Magleo, in police uniform, Hakim and Bryan Ajoc around half past noon while he was about to board his maroon Honda Civic parked side the dormitory of his friend Angelo Jimenez, who witnessed the abduction, at the corner of Engineering and Bagong Lote streets in Potrero, Malabon. Niño was shoved into a gray Corolla and was blindfolded. After three hours driving, Tobiano was led into a septic tank of chest-deep in filthy sludge, handcuffed. He stayed there for eight days before escaping on Aug. 9. While there, Antonio Ajoc Jr. brought him food and a lamp. On the last day, the kidnappers roused Tobiano from sleep telling him that soldiers roamed in the vicinity. He was later left alone giving him a chance to escape. He hailed a truck driver down the road and phoned his father. Thereafter, he was rescued by the police.

The accused covered their faces as cameras clicked. As the sentence was being read in open court, the handcuffed Magleo slumped dejectedly into his seat in muffled sobbing. The younger Ajoc, a BS Marine Transport graduate in Zamboanga del Norte in search for a job in Manila before getting involved in the crime, cried unabashedly as his elder brother looked down glumly. The three have been committed to the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City.