Pacificador seeks justice for killing of grandnephew

Antique provincial board member Arturo Pacificador INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — Former assemblyman and now Antique provincial board member Arturo Pacificador is seeking justice for the killing of his grandnephew who was gunned down allegedly by a policeman last Saturday.

Pacificador said his family would file charges against Police Officer 2 Jose Suarez and the policeman’s two brothers believed to be involved in the killing of lawyer John Mark Espera.

Espera, 39, died of multiple gunshot wounds after he was shot around 11:10 a.m. in Pu-ao in Hamtic town, about 12 kilometers from the capital town of San Jose in Antique.

Senior Supt. Marlon Ganzon, Antique police director, said investigators were gathering evidence and information and determining the motive and circumstances that led to the shooting.

Based on initial investigation, Espera and Suarez’s brother, Virgilio, engaged in a fistfight before the lawyer was gunned down, according to Ganzon.

Inspector Henry Luna, Hamtic police chief, said the policeman and another brother, Raymundo, allegedly shot Espera when they came upon the lawyer and Virgilio in an altercation.

Suarez, who is assigned to the Tobias Fornier police office, surrendered to Supt. Jose Roy Torechilla, chief of the Antique Public Safety Company, a few hours later. He is now detained at the Antique Provincial Police Office in San Jose.

Suarez turned over an M-16 rifle and a 9-mm pistol along with ammunition of the firearms.

The police are still hunting his two brothers who fled to mountainous areas in Hamtic after the shooting. They recovered an abandoned Honda motorcycle used by the suspects as their getaway vehicle in Barangay (village) Linaban in Hamtic.

“We have asked Suarez to help persuade his brothers to surrender,” Ganzon told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Investigators were also gathering testimonies of victims amid contradicting reports and claims on who started the fistfight and the shooting.

The shooting happened along the national highway a few meters from the houses of the Suarez brothers.

Espera, who was accompanied by his driver and bodyguard Romeo Gasalao, was in the village to see a client. The lawyer was allegedly armed with an M-16 rifle but gave the firearm to Gasalao before the fistfight, according to police reports.