Sestoso murder case NORPPO: Suspects have links with NPA

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — The Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office (NORPPO) announced to the media that the suspects in the brutal murder of radio broadcaster Edmund Sestoso have affiliations with the New Peoples Army rebels.

Senior Superintendent Raul Tacaca, director of NORPPO, said that results of the investigations pointed to a certain Rene Bustamante — with aliases Ka Pediong, Ka Jade Hervias, and Ka Jury Mercado — and two other John Does who are allegedly relatives of Bustamante.

The two John Does — known only as Ka Mokong and Ka Sherwin — are residents of Barangay Baguid in Guihulngan City and were tagged as the riding-in-tandem assailants who shot Sestoso in the morning of April 30, at Aldecoa Road at Barangay Daro, near the victim’s boarding house.

Tacaca said the vital witness had personal knowledge of the two suspected gunmen, who had earlier claimed to be nephews of Bustamante.

Investigators said Bustamante was arrested in 2014 at a checkpoint in Tanjay City, Negros Oriental, and he reportedly suspected that Sestoso was the one who reported his whereabouts, resulting in his arrest.

Tacaca said, the political angle never came out in the investigation, especially about the issues that Sestoso discussed in his radio program.

Members of the Dumaguete media could only look at each other when the complaint sheet was read identifying an alleged member of the NPA as the suspect, because Sestoso was even monitored, while still alive, on suspicion that he had connections with the Reds, and the way he treated the Mabinay 6 issue, and the rebels’ ambush of the Guihulngan Police.

Also, the NPA’s Leonardo Panaligan Command, in a May 3 statement through spokesperson JB Regalado, already condemned the killing of Sestoso as a form of suppressing press freedom. It further called for justice and to put a stop to media killings and repression.

Tacaca disclosed that the statement of the vital witness was corraborated by another witness who is a member of the press. In the affidavit of the witness, Sestoso was a close friend of Bustamante and, days before the latter was arrested, the two met and talked.

According to the third witness, Sestoso’s perception was that Bustamante would suspect him to be responsible for his arrest at the time.

Sestoso’s wife Lourdes, as private complainant, filed the information for the crime of murder against the suspects before the City Prosecutors Office Friday afternoon. She told the media she was hoping justice will be served.

Assistant City Prosecutor Angela Czarina Cortez-Garces notarized the statements and affidavits of the three witnesses for docketing, after which the case will be assigned by the city prosecutor to one of the assistant prosecutors for preliminary investigation.

During the 60-day preliminary probe, the assigned prosecutor will notify and furnish copies of the complaint to the respondents to give the latter the opportunity to file counter-evidences.

In a related development, NORPPO has released to the media the updated facial composites of "Sherwin" and "Mokong," the suspected gunmen in the murder of Sestoso.