CEBU, Philippines — Tejero councilman Jessielou Cadungog can now have a sigh of relief after the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office cleared him of charges for murder and frustrated murder filed against him by police officials over the killing of a policeman.
However, while the charges filed by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group against Cadungog were dismissed, his driver and bodyguard William Macaslang is still facing downgraded charges before the court for homicide and attempted homicide.
Macaslang admitted he shot dead Police Officer 3 Eugene Calumba out of self- defense after the latter allegedly attempted to ambush them along T. Padilla Extension in Cebu City last July 30. He said he was prompted to fire after he saw Calumba pull out a gun.
Benjamin Militar, the lawyer of Macaslang, said the panel of prosecutors found no element of murder and frustrated murder in the case filed by the CIDG.
“Because there were no elements of murder wala gihatagan og gibug-aton ang gisulti ni Banua. They did not give credit sa statement ni Banua,” Militar said.
Michael Banua was the driver of the motorcycle boarded by Calumba when the shooting incident happened. He is considered by the CIDG as a witness to the shooting.
Militar said Macaslang still faces charges before the court because Calumba was killed.
“Ma-obligado man g’yud ang prosecutor to file a case nga homicide kay naa man namatay,” Militar said.
Cecil Gadrinab, administrative officer of the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, said the resolution was made by the panel of prosecutors headed by fiscal Rose Marie Pabatao and filed before the Regional Trial Court yesterday.
The provincial prosecutors took over the investigation of the case after the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office inhibited.
Macaslang’s bail was set at P120,000 for the homicide case and P36,000 for the attempted homicide case.
He said, they were able to post bail for the homicide case which will be heard before the Regional Trial Court Branch 17, but the processing of the attempted homicide case will have to continue on Monday since the docketing was not finished yesterday. The said case was raffled also to Municipal Trial Court in Cities-8.
The arraignment will be held on August 31.
Cadungog’s lawyer Renato Galeon said he talked to the councilman over the phone yesterday and his client was relieved to hear of the development.
Galeon said they were not surprised by the decision of the prosecutors as they are confident that their evidence is strong that Cadungog was not on board his Toyota FJ Cruiser when the shooting happened.
“We have CCTV footage that he was not inside the FJ Cruiser when the incident happened,” Galeon said.
As of now, he said Cadungog is no longer under the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation but did not reveal his whereabouts for safety reasons. — BRP (FREEMAN)