BACOLOD CITY—Justice for the violent death of a prominent doctor in the city four years ago finally came on July 12 when a regional trial court found a young man guilty of the murder.
Dr. Andres Gumban, 63, was beaten on the head with a stone and stabbed 35 times inside his house in Regent Pearl Homes Subdivision in Barangay Alijis on May 12, 2012. The killing was captured on video by his attackers and shocked the local business and medical community.
In his 21-page decision, Judge Ray Alan Drilon of Regional Trial Court Branch 41 sentenced Fof Pascual Jr., 22, to at least 40 years imprisonment and was ordered to pay the victim’s heirs P135,000 in civil indemnity for moral and exemplary damages.
Pascual’s companion, who was 16 at the time of the murder, earlier pleaded guilty to the crime on Dec. 12, 2012, and received a prison term of 10 to 17 years.