Robin’s kin ‘brains’ in brod’s slay?

SAN MATEO, Isabela — One of the suspects in Gino Padilla case has admitted his participation in the abduction and killing of Robin Padilla’s half-brother, and claimed that three uncles of the action star’s mother paid them P400,000 to do the dirty job.

Catalino Mercado, one of the suspects in Gino’s gruesome death, disclosed in a sworn affidavit that the uncles of Eva Cariño, Robin’s mother, hired him and six others to abduct and kill the action star’s half-brother.

In a six-page sworn affidavit obtained by the San Mateo police following Mercado’s arrest here last Friday, the suspect identified the Cariño brothers as Crispin, Wilson and Gil.

Chief Insp. Reynaldo Sinaon Sr., this town’s police chief, said that the affidavit, copy of which was obtained by The STAR, was furnished to them by the National Bureau of Investigation-Cabanatuan City office, after they requested for it following Mercado’s arrest here.

The suspect was arrested by Sinaon’s men in the house of his cousin, Felino Roque, in Barangay Darauangan Norte here in connection with another case.

During police interrogation, however, Roque squealed on Mercado’s alleged participation in Gino’s abduction and killing. This prompted the police here to ask the NBI and the Nueva Ecija police for any information on Mercado, who was a Cabanatuan City resident before migrating here.

Roque was implicated in turn by Mercado in his April 22 testimony before NBI agents in Cabanatuan City, as the one who recruited him in abducting Gino.

The morning before the abduction, Mercado claimed, Puyat and Aquino fetched him here for a "project" in Nueva Ecija. He said they proceeded to Gamboa, about five hours from here, where they met the Cariños (Crispin, Gil and Wilson) and a certain Angkuan inside a rice field hut.

It was there, Mercado said, that he learned about the "project." He said that the Cariños were the ones who "imported" them to abduct and kill Gino for P400,000.

Part of the plan, Mercado disclosed, was also to abduct Gino’s mother, Jenny Serafica, who, however, was out when the abduction took place.

Mercado, who escaped from the Nueva Ecija provincial jail on Oct. 21, 1989 while serving a life sentence for robbery in band and rape, claimed he only served as look-out when their group went to Gino’s farmhouse at around 8 p.m. last March 8 on board a van and a red owner-type jeep.

Mercado tagged Roque, one Ador Puyat, Junior Aquino, Ruben Jose, Reynaldo Enriquez, Allan Gamboa and a certain "Hapon" as the ones who actually entered and seized Gino inside his farmhouse in Barangay Bibiclat, Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija.

Mercado, who was with Roque and Puyat on board a jeep, said Gamboa gunned down Sixto de Gracia, caretaker of Gino family’s farmhouse, while the others burned the farmhouse, a hand tractor and a car.

"Gino," he said, "was dragged inside the van."

After the incident, Mercado said, their group proceeded to Carmen, in Rosales, Pangsinan with their kidnap victim Gino.

He said he left Roque’s group in Rosales and decided to go back to Isabela.

A week after the abduction, Gino’s decomposing body was found in Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija.

Earlier, Gino’s paternal uncle, House Minority Leader Carlos Padilla said that his nephew’s abduction and killing might have something to do with an ongoing dispute among Gino’s relatives involving a vast tract of land in Nueva Ecija.

Rep. Padilla of Nueva Vizcaya is a cousin of the late former Assemblyman and Camarines Norte Gov. Roy Padilla, Gino and Robin’s father.