CEBU CITY— A new path may have opened for a man earlier linked to the communist insurgency and currently accused of masterminding a pawnshop robbery.
That is if he can get out of jail first.
Jigger Capadngan Geverola, 47, was among 3,812 examinees who passed the 2023 bar examinations, based on the results released on Dec. 5.
Geverola showed mixed emotions as his wife informed him on Tuesday about the results when she visited him at the Cebu City Police Office, where he has been detained pending the resolution of the robbery complaint filed against him at the city prosecutor’s office.
“I am happy that I passed the bar exams. However, I am also sad because of my situation,” he said in Cebuano.
Geverola was arrested by the police in his house at Barangay Gutlang, Argao town, south Cebu, on Nov. 28 as a suspect in the daytime robbery of Oro Sugbo Pawnshop and Jewelry Store on Colon Street in downtown Cebu City three days earlier. He was linked to the crime based on the extrajudicial confessions executed by two other arrested suspects.
Vow to help cellmates
Geverola denied having anything to do with the robbery.
Now that he’s a bar passer, he promised to assist the 41 other detainees now sharing his cell once he had taken his oath as a lawyer. “At the end of the day, I am grateful to all those who prayed and helped me reach my dreams. I know the day will come when I’ll get past this problem,” he said.
His 65-year-old mother, Celsa, said she believed Geverola when he maintained his innocence and that “I hope his name will be cleared.”
Celsa said his son, who also had previous run-ins with the law, decided to study law to help others.
Geverola is the eldest of three children. His youngest sister is a teacher, while the other sibling is into farming like their parents.
Lack of evidence
In December 2001, Geverola was tagged for arson for allegedly setting a Philtranco bus on fire in Catmon, Cebu. He went into hiding and was arrested in 2004.
The military branded him at the time as an official of the Central Visayas regional committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Judge Hermes Montero dismissed the arson case on Nov. 4, 2010, for lack of evidence.
Released from jail, Geverola began to rebuild his life by trying to go back to school. Only the Cebu Technological University, a public institution, accepted him.
While studying, he found work in different offices, starting with a private company, then a politician’s staff, until he became a field organizer for various projects of the provincial capitol.
In 2020, he completed his law studies at Southwestern University in Cebu City and took the 2023 bar exams held in September.