Journalist’s 2005 slay: Manila RTC hears Aurora mayor’s bail petition today

DINGALAN, Aurora — The Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) will hear today the petition for bail filed by detained Dingalan Mayor Jaime Ylarde at the resumption of the trial of the celebrated 2005 killing of newspaper publisher Philip Agustin.

Manila RTC Branch 6 Judge Jansen Rodriguez said he will hold two or three hearings to decide on Ylarde’s petition.

"If the court finds that the evidence is not that strong against Ylarde, then we will grant (his bail petition)," he said.

The case was last heard last month, but a commotion marred it when Ylarde’s younger brother Cesar confronted a cameraman who tried to take his photos while the mayor was being whisked out of the packed courthouse.

Ylarde and three others are being tried for the 2005 murder of Agustin, publisher of Starline Times Recorder.

Rodriguez clarified newspaper reports that another accused, Reynaldo Morete, has turned state witness.

"He (Morete) is not a state witness yet but he has a petition to discharge (himself) as an accused and to become a state witness," he said.

A former police station commander here, Ylarde was tagged by Morete as the mastermind in the killing of Agustin, 54, who was gunned down inside his house in Barangay Paltic here shortly before midnight of May 10, 2005. Two other suspects, Nilo Morete and Manuel Alday, are at large.

Agustin’s death came on the heels of the publication in the May 2-8, 2005 issue of Starline Times Recorder of alleged anomalies committed by Ylarde, including the construction of a cockpit, the slow rehabilitation of calamity-affected areas and supposed missing donations.

Ylarde, detained at the Manila City jail, has denied masterminding the killing, as Morete had claimed.

Last July, the Supreme Court transferred the venue of the celebrated case, the first involving a local chief executive of Aurora, from the RTC Branch 66 in Baler, the province’s capital town, to the Manila RTC upon the request of state prosecutors Nestor Lazaro and Aristotle Reyes.

During the last hearing, Agustin’s younger sister, Nenita Mendoza, 51, took the witness stand and testified that seven days before the killing, she saw two men roaming around her brother’s house.

She said she saw the two again on the day of the killing and later learned that they were Morete and Alday.

She recalled that during her brother’s wake, a small piece of paper was handed to her, with a note saying that Morete and Alday should be investigated in connection with the killing.