Criminal raps filed vs son of Flor Contemplacion

LAGUNA, Philippines – Police filed criminal charges yesterday against a son of the late domestic helper Flor Contemplacion, and his three companions in connection with the killing of a barangay councilor in San Pablo City last Thursday.

Romulo Contemplacion and his companions Rudelito Enalpe Cajida, Romeo Castro and Salvador Borromeo were charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives, and violation of the Comelec gun ban, Laguna police director Senior Superintendent Pascual Muñoz said.

Muñoz told The STAR murder charges would also be filed against the accused as soon as probers finish gathering evidence including paraffin test results and cross-matching examinations. He said probers opted not to file the murder charges immediately to prevent technicalities that might lead to the dismissal of the case.

The official said Contemplacion’s cohorts have criminal records for robbery, murder and frustrated homicide in San Pablo City.

Contemplacion and his companions were identified by an eyewitness in the killing of councilman Roland Acbang and for wounding of Rardine Mercado, a driver of a relative of a mayoral candidate in San Pablo City last Thursday.

Acbang was putting up posters of a mayoral candidate in Barangay San Crispin when two men on a motorcycle shot him at close range. Hours later, Mercado, 33, was shot and wounded by two armed men in Barangay Francisco.

Flor Contemplacion was a domestic helper sentenced to death in Singapore in 1995 for killing Filipino maid Delia Magat and her four-year-old ward.

Contemplacion's three other sons -- Sandrex and twins Jun-jun and Joel -- were sentenced to life imprisonment for drug trafficking in 2011.