MANILA, Philippines–The family of a businessman murdered in 2006 received a unique Christmas gift in the form of the verdict handed down Monday against the female mastermind and the three hired goons behind the killing.
Attending the promulgation in white shirts, the loved ones of the late Gil Manlapaz of Sta. Ana, Manila, turned emotional as businesswoman Anita Buce, Raymond Mercado, Dennis Frederick Lelis and Jose Reblora were pronounced guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Moved to tears was the victim’s wife, Josephine, who was the original target of the murder plot but was spared after the killers failed to see her.
Judge Armando Yanga of Manila Regional Trial Court-Branch 173 said the “evidence against Buce, gunman Mercado and lookouts Lelis and Reblora was more than ample to establish their guilt in this murder case with moral certainty.”
(subhead) Middleman turns state witness
“Conspiracy was undoubtedly present when Buce hired middleman George Duazo, who then contacted the three other men to carry out the killing,” Yanga added.
In his testimony, Duazo said Buce, a soft drink dealer and friend of the victim’s wife, ordered him to go into hiding after the murder. But he later turned against Buce and entered the witness protection program in 2009, claiming she threatened to kill his family also if he squeals.
“The court gives full weight and credence to the testimony of Duazo for he was direct, very positive and convincing in his testimonies against Buce’s participation as the financier in the killing of Manlapaz,” the decision said.
Duazo said Buce ordered him in June 2006 to “get killers” who could go after Josephine. He admitted hiring Mercado, Lelis and Reblora to spy on the woman and find an opportunity to kill her.
On the day of the attack, however, Lelis informed him that the target could not be seen in the Manlapaz residence, where they planned to shoot her. Josephine was actually inside taking a nap at the time.
(subhead)’Just kill anyone’
Duazo recalled that after passing this information to Buce, the businesswoman instructed him to just kill anyone from the Manlapaz family. The gunmen then targeted Gil Manlapaz, who was tending the family store that day.
Shortly after leaving the store, Manlapaz was shot twice in the head by Mercado in the afternoon of June 29, 2006. The victim died in the hospital four days later.
Josephine—the original target–was in tears as she emerged from the courtroom Monday. Earlier in the trial, she testified that she had known Buce for 20 years and they were once close friends who practically regarded one another as sisters. As a wholesaler and store owner, Josephine said, she always got her products from Buce.
But this friendship turned sour because of a business disagreement, which led to threatening phone calls from Buce.
Speaking to the Inquirer, Manlapaz’s son Jay, 26, said the guilty verdict proved that their prayers worked and that “God is with us.”
“It was an emotionally, mentally and financially challenging seven years for the family,” said Jay, 26.
The younger Manlapaz said he had almost lost faith in the country’s justice system since his family was going against Buce, whom he described as a rich and powerful individual who owned a warehouse in Pandacan.
Buce was arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation in 2011, five years after the murder. The bureau also investigated her for alleged involvement in the financial dealings of the Kuratong Baleleng kidnapping group and the Alvin Flores car theft syndicate. She then dismissed the allegations as baseless and malicious.
All the four accused were present in court during the promulgation. As the decision was being read aloud, Mercado, Lelis and Reblora also became teary eyed while Buce tried to stop the reading several times by raising her hand and stressing a point to Judge Yanga.
“My lawyer filed a motion, your honor,” Buce said, before she was quickly cut off by a visibly irked Yanga.
“Your motion was denied because it was a frivolous motion. Please keep quiet because we will continue with the reading of the judgment and not even Typhoon ‘Yolanda’ can postpone this promulgation,” said the judge, who also warned that if she would not stop talking, he would have her mouth covered with tape.