GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines—The widow of Mayor George Perrett of Maitum, Sarangani, said Tuesday her family was grateful for the identification of and filing of charges against several suspects in the Feb. 28 killing of her husband, the fourth incumbent or former mayor of the town to have been killed since 1990.
Elsie Perrett personally thanked Chief Supt. Lester Camba, Central Mindanao Police Director, on Monday “for doing everything to solve the case.”
“I am greatly satisfied with how the (Special Investigation Task Group-Perrett) worked on the case and I have made the right choice by entrusting them this case, delivering justice not only for my husband but for the populace of Maitum,” Perrett told Camba in the presence of reporters.
But what the authorities have accomplished thus far was just the “first step (in) a long and arduous quest for justice,” she added.
Last week, the police task force investigating the Perrett assassination filed murder charges at the Sarangani Provincial Prosecutor’s Office against Sarangani provincial board member Alexander Bryan Reganit, Kiayap village chair Ismael Dimaudtang, Kiayap village councilor Edgar Improgo, Mohalidin Pinto, Mike Kamid, Suharto Abubakar, alias Uno Dimaudtang and Bashir Sanday, all but three of whom remain at large.
The three suspects so far in police custody are Suharto Abubakar, whose confession led to the identification of the other suspects, Uno Dimaudtang and Edgar Improgo. All three were arrested in simultaneous police raids on their residences in connection with gun charges on April 2, Camba said.
Reganit is the son of Felix Reganit, a former Maitum mayor who was killed in 2008. The elder Reganit’s killing remains unresolved, along with those of Exuperio Gaabocayan, a former mayor killed in 1990 and George Yabes, who was still in office when he was killed in 2006.
Camba said the speedy filing of the charges against the suspects in the Perrett killing was due to the confession of Abubakar. It was he who identified the other suspects in the Perrett ambush-slay. Abubakar admitted participation in the mayor’s killing by serving as lookout, Camba said.
Camba said the affidavit made by Abubakar served as the police’s basis for filing murder charges against the eight suspects. The charges have since been elevated to the Regional Trial Court of Sarangani but no draw has been conducted yet to determine which of its branches would handle the trial.
Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao admitted the Peretts and the Reganits were his allies.
“But I want the truth and justice to prevail. Hence, my appeal is let’s allow the wheels of justice take its course,” he said in reaction to the filing of murder charges against the suspects.
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