LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—The teenager who implicated Pangasinan’s top officials in the 2012 assassination of a town mayor has retracted, and has prepared a new affidavit that would clear Gov. Amado Espino, Rep. Jesus Celeste and his own father, a newspaper publisher, of participating in the murder plot.
The 17-year-old boy met reporters on Thursday to declare that he was coerced into testifying against the Pangasinan officials, who were charged with the 2012 murder of Infanta Mayor Ruperto Martinez, a political ally of Espino.
“I was used during the [2013] elections. I want to clear the name of Espino because he had done nothing wrong,” the boy said in Filipino.
The boy was accompanied by lawyer Raymund Tugade, district head of Public Attorney’s Office in Lingayen, and Lorenza Decena, municipal social welfare and development officer of the town.
The boy earlier executed an affidavit saying that he overheard the officials plotting to kill Martinez.
NBI charges
His testimony was considered the primary evidence that prompted the National Bureau of Investigation to charge Espino, Celeste and the boy’s father in January this year.
Martinez was shot dead at his front yard in Infanta on Dec. 15, the same day residents mounted a rally to protest the expansion of the town’s pier, which they feared would be used to ship nickel to China from Zambales. Two of the gunmen had been arrested.
The boy claimed he was persuaded by a political rival of Espino to implicate the governor, the congressman and his father.
Tugade said the boy’s official recantation would be forwarded to the Department of Justice, as supplemental information.
Provincial Administrator Rafael Baraan and other provincial government officials joined the boy at the news conference here, along with the slain mayor’s family.
LP plot
The boy accused three political leaders identified with the Liberal Party (LP) as the people who urged him to implicate Espino. The Inquirer tried but failed to get reactions from the LP leaders in the province.
Because Espino and Celeste were rivals of the LP at the time, the boy said he met President Aquino and other top officials like Interior Secretary Mar Roxas. He claimed the President “asked me if I was a cousin.”
The boy had been placed under the witness protection program, but he claimed he escaped from government custody at Camp Crame on Nov. 25.
He said he took a taxicab to a bus station where he boarded a bus back to Pangasinan. He said he contacted a local radio station executive who took him to Espino.
At the news conference, the boy apologized to the Martinez family, Espino and Celeste for the trouble he had caused them.
Martinez’s daughter, Crisanta, said the family was happy he recanted. Earlier, the family denounced the charges filed against Espino, saying the government had the wrong suspects.
The Martinez family had said they could not think of a motive for the governor to want the mayor killed because the mayor is an ally and friend of Espino.