Agusan del Sur. INQUIRER FILES
DAVAO CITY — A Quezon City court has ordered the arrest of a businessman, and a former New People’s Army (NPA) guerrilla, so they would be made to answer for their alleged involvement in the killing in 2021 of retired Colonel Samuel Afdal.
Presiding Judge Juris Dilinila-Callanta of Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 85 issued the arrest warrant against Ryan Mark Baylon, president of JB Earthmovers Inc. based in San Francisco, Agusan del Sur, and former rebel Rosalino Degracia alias Okie, for the murder of Afdal, who owned the Rosario Manobo Mining Corp. (RMMC).
No bail was recommended.
Baylon and Degracia are among four identified suspects in the ambush of Afdal on Oct. 26, 2021, in Sta. Cruz village of Rosario town, Agusan del Sur as he was driving along an uphill road toward the RMMC base camp.
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Although hit, the former soldier managed to drive toward the RMMC compound and sought help. He was rushed to a local hospital where he later lapsed into a coma and died on Nov. 15, 2021.
A third suspect, Alemar Awado alias Dongkoy, also a former NPA guerrilla, had been detained in a jail in Bislig City, Surigao del Sur for another murder charge.
The case of Afdal is now heard in a Quezon City court after the Supreme Court granted the prayer of his widow, Evelyn, the main complainant, for transfer of venue from Regional Trial Court Branch 6 in Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur.
Before the transfer of venue, Agusan del Sur provincial prosecutor Ceferino Dino Paredes indicted Awado, Baylon, and Degracia for Afdal’s ambush before the court in Prosperidad last Jan. 31.
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In his Jan. 18 resolution, Paredes gave credence to the accounts of the fourth suspect, former NPA rebel Jeffrey Mamerto, who admitted to have staged the ambush against Afdal, known to his associates as Saga.
On the basis of his admission, Mamerto pleaded guilty to the lesser offense of homicide and was meted a 10-year prison term by Prosperidad RTC Presiding Judge Emily Zen Chua.
Mamerto was indicted for the crime in November 2022 but it was only in October 2023 that he confessed about his role in it.
Mamerto had pointed to Baylon, Afdal’s business associate, as the mastermind of the kill plot, allegedly offering his former NPA colleagues Degracia and Awado P200,000 to do the hit job. Mamerto, in turn, was contracted for P50,000 to pull the trigger against Afdal.
In the amended information filed by Paredes before the Prosperidad RTC, Baylon was tagged as principal by inducement for offering the cash reward for the hit job, and also principal by indispensable cooperation by giving Degracia, Awado, and Mamerto critical information so they could carry out the ambush. Degracia and Awado were tagged as co-principal by direct participation.
In her complaint for murder against Baylon, Afdal’s widow Evelyn said that the accused defrauded her family of their ownership stake in JB Earthmovers, which was “obliterated” from company records after her husband’s death.
Baylon, Evelyn further alleged, also tried to take control of RMMC after Afdal’s death.