MANILA, Philippines - A former Marine master sergeant charged for shooting dead two Caloocan City policemen is actually a fugitive convicted for murder, frustrated murder and qualified theft, police said yesterday.
Ernesto Calagui, alias Aristotel Calagui, 43, escaped from the Cagayan provincial jail in 2005, where he was detained while on trial for murder and frustrated homicide, according to Caloocan City Jail warden Superintendent Lyndon Torres.
Calagui has evaded authorities until he was accosted late last month for allegedly killing PO3 Joel Belarmino and PO1 Victor Mondejar last Feb. 24 in Caloocan City.
Belarmino and Mondejar accosted Calagui for hurting his live-in partner Christine Napolis along Monumento while they were waiting for a bus ride to Taguig, where Calagui resides.
The policemen were about to bring the quarreling couple aboard their patrol car to the police station when Calagui, armed with a .45 caliber pistol, gunned down the policemen.
“I calmly went with the police, but while inside their patrol car Mondejar hit me with his pistol in the face twice. I lost control of myself pulled my firearm tucked in my belt and emptied my load on the policeman’s body,” Calagui told The STAR.
Calagui said the arresting policemen knew he was armed, because he introduced himself as a military officer, but failed to confiscate his weapon and three extra fully loaded magazines.
He is facing two counts of murder for killing Mondejar and Belarmino before the Caloocan City court.
Calagui, who left the military service in 2004, was also wanted by the Makati City authorities after a local court convicted him of homicide in March 2002 and sentenced him to 15 years’ imprisonment.
In March 2001, another Makati City court also found him guilty for a qualified theft case and meted him two years jail term.
Calagui evaded arrest and was later employed as a bodyguard of a prominent businessman. He denied knowledge about the convictions and other cases against him.
Torres wrote Caloocan City Acting Executive Judge Edmundo Acuna last Wednesday, asking for Calagui’s transfer to a more secure prison facility since he is considered a high-risk inmate.
One of the slain policemen has a close relative detained at the Caloocan City Jail, while Calagui has brothers in active military service – one in the Marines and another in the Navy. – Pete Laude