Isabela town hall slays: 2 former soldiers held

JONES, Isabela—-Police arrested two former Army soldiers on Friday afternoon for allegedly killing Jones Vice Mayor Florante Raspado and an aide of a councilor inside the town hall earlier that day, police said.

Supt. Manuel Bringas, Isabela provincial police plans and operations chief, said Michael Deocariza, 31, a former soldier who went on Awol (absence without official leave) and a native of Caloocan City, and Reynaldo Tapia, 71, a retired soldier from this town, were arrested in Quirino province after a chase.

Raspado and Anthony Agarin, 30, a security aide of Jones Councilor Lanie Uy, died from bullet wounds in their heads and bodies, said Bringas.

Raspado’s legal consultant, lawyer Jay-ar Vallejo, said the suspects, who were carrying automatic rifles, entered the session hall at the town hall’s second floor by breaking its glass door around 11 a.m. Vallejo said Raspado was then presiding over a council session attended by seven councilors.

The Jones town hall is a kilometer away from the town’s commercial district. The closest police station is located near the public market in the town center.

Shots, chase

Bringas said policemen saw the suspects’ car, a red Mitsubishi Adventure, in Barangay Dappig in San Agustin town at 12:30 p.m., more than an hour after the attack.

One of the suspects, he said, fired at the policemen but no one was hit. A chase ensued, leading to the suspects’ arrest in the village of Palacian in nearby Aglipay, Quirino.

Deocariza, who used to be assigned to the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division in Rizal province, and Tapia, a resident of Barangay 2 here, were held at the Isabela police’s intelligence branch in the capital city of Ilagan. Charges of double murder had been filed against them in the provincial prosecutor’s office.

Raspado served as mayor for three terms, from 2004 to 2013. He ran for and won as vice mayor in May 2013, but his wife Evelyn, who ran for mayor, lost to incumbent Mayor Leticia Sebastian.

Raspado’s political allies said he was planning to run for mayor in 2016 and had tapped Uy as his running mate.

Assassination plot

In September last year, Raspado bared a supposed plot, hatched by his political opponents, to kill him and Uy.

Three men, who were supposedly sent out to kill Raspado and Uy, were arrested in Santiago City last year. Raspado had said the suspects had been promised P500,000 for the job.

The attack on Raspado was not the first time that an official of Jones was murdered.

Mayor Sebastian’s husband, former Mayor Jesus Sebastian, was shot and killed by suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in 2001. Last year, Jones municipal treasurer Mario Duerme was murdered in Santiago City.