Suspects in slays of judge, poll exec charged with murder

Ricky Begino

Police on Wednesday filed murder charges against suspects in this week’s killings of a judge in Camarines Sur province and of an election officer in Batangas province.

In Camarines Sur, police said a complaint for murder against Wilfredo Armea was filed in the Naga City prosecutor’s office.

Armea, 72, was arrested for shooting and killing Judge Ricky Begino of the San Jose-Lagonoy Municipal Circuit Trial Court in Camarines Sur.

Begino, 49, was shot near his house in Presentacion town on Tuesday afternoon.

He died while being taken to a hospital in Naga City.

Armea was arrested in a police operation on Wednesday morning.

Land dispute

Senior Insp. Bernardo Peñero, Presentacion police chief, said Begino was attacked by Armea due to a land dispute involving an eight-hectare farmland at Barangay Bicaben.

Armea told investigators  he shot Begino because he could no longer draw income from the land he allegedly owned after Begino’s relatives took over farming chores on the land planted with abaca and other crops.

The judge’s relatives declined to comment on the land dispute raised by Armea.

Begino will be buried on June 18.

Manhunt continues

In Batangas province, police filed murder charges against two men suspected of killing Noel Miralles, the election officer of Mabini town, on Monday night.

A source from the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) police on Thursday said the murder case was filed at the Batangas provincial prosecutor’s office on Wednesday afternoon.

Only one of the suspected gunmen had been identified, but the source asked the Inquirer that his name be withheld as police pursue the suspects.

“There were witnesses and CCTV (closed-circuit television footage),” the source told the Inquirer.

Senior Supt. Edwin Quilates, Batangas police director, said manhunt operations were ongoing against the suspects.

Noel Miralles

Culture of impunity

Miralles, 53, was shot and killed by two men on a motorcycle near a shopping mall in Bauan town as he was waiting for a ride home to Batangas City.

Quilates earlier said the killing was “definitely, work-related,” but refused to further discuss this angle.

Employees of the Commission on Elections, in a statement on Tuesday, said the killing of Miralles “highlights the prevailing culture of impunity in the country.”

They called on authorities to “spare no effort in bringing the perpetrators of this cowardly act to justice.”—REPORTS FROM MAR ARGUELLES, STEPHANIE FLORIDA AND MARICAR CINCO