Davao Sur governor denies role in newsman's slay

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Davao del Sur Gov. Douglas Cagas has denied allegations that he and a town mayor were behind the killing last June of a newsman in Digos City.

A certain Voltaire Mirafuentes, a self-confessed gunman, earlier alleged that Cagas and Matan-ao Mayor Butch Fernandez were the ones who ordered him to carry out the killing of newspaperman Nestor Bedolido on the night of June 19 this year.

“I do not know that Voltaire Mirafuentes. And I have not met him at all. So, how can I order him to kill somebody?” Cagas said in an interview with a local TV station.

Cagas said his political rivals could be behind the allegations of the self-confessed gunman so he could not finish his term.

“Since they (his political rivals) have been defeated in the last elections and they could not get anything against me, they have now resorted to accusing me of being behind the killing of a mediaman,” he said.

Cagas said he was in Manila from June 14 to 19 attending a forum on lawyers and met with some congressional colleagues of his son, Marc.

Cagas said he has a certification to prove this and a copy of his plane ticket, too, to disprove the allegations.

In his affidavit, Mirafuentes alleged that Cagas and Fernandez duped him into killing Bedolido by making him believe that the newsman had something to do with the death of his parents last year.

Mirafuentes executed the affidavit at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) headquarters at Camp Crame in Quezon City last Oct. 8.

Mirafuentes said Cagas summoned him to his residence in Digos City on the morning of June 19 and there he saw Fernandez, too.

The two politicians then allegedly informed him that Bedolido was behind the death of his parents.

The suspects in the fatal shooting of Mirafuentes’ parents were a certain Apolinario Gamayot Jr. and Elizardo Bacon, known to be bodyguards of Fernandez.

But the Matan-ao mayor said he fired the two after he discovered that they were “deep penetration agents” of Cagas’ staunch political rivals, the Bautistas of Malita town.

Mirafuentes said his parents, Henry and Brenda, formerly worked with Cagas as members of the governor’s “confidential close-in staff.” They were killed in an ambush in New Visayas, Matan-ao on Sept. 9, 2009.

Cagas, however, said he does not know the Mirafuentes couple nor were they part of his confidential staff.

“(Cagas and Fernandez) were able to convince and mislead me to believe that my parents were killed because of the doings of Bedolido,” Mirafuentes said in his affidavit.

With this, the two politicians allegedly told Mirafuentes to get justice for his slain parents by killing Bedolido.

Cagas allegedly assured Mirafuentes that he would support him in getting his brand of justice and would take care of the police that might run after him.

Mirafuentes alleged that Cagas and Fernandez supplied him with a caliber .45 pistol and another pistol for his younger brother, Henry Jr., who would serve as his lookout and driver of the getaway motorcycle.

Mirafuentes said he gunned down Bedolido at the Torecs videoke bar along Quezon Avenue in Digos City.

Besides his brother, he said he had two other accomplices, a certain Bado and Ali.