Villarosa says filings just harassment

CALAPAN CITY, Philippines—Former Occidental Mindoro Rep. Jose Villarosa said that after he was acquitted by the Court of Appeals in the murders of Paul and Michael Quintos, their father, former Rep. Ricardo Quintos filed a motion for reconsideration but this was dismissed on the grounds of double jeopardy.

“Then he filed with the Supreme Court on the question of bias of the justices of the (Court of) Appeals, which was also dismissed. He then filed again. This is simple political harassment since the elections are near,” Villarosa said.

Villarosa said Quintos was a “perennial candidate who has not won even once against my uncle, ex-governor Arsenio Villarosa, Rep. Pedro Mendiola, myself and my wife Amelita C. Villarosa. He lost all nine elections.”

“The NPA had admitted through Ka Roger that they were the ones who killed the two sons as the NPA had sentenced the whole Quintos family for the killing of farmers, cruelty and burning of farmers’ “dampa” (huts) in Mamburao,” Villarosa said.

Gunned down in party

Quintos’ sons, Paul and Michael, were gunned down by a group of armed men at a birthday party in Mamburao, Mindoro Occidental, on Dec. 17, 1997.

Their father quickly tagged Villarosa as being behind the killing. Quintos alleged that Villarosa wanted to take a piece of his family’s Golden Country Farm, which Michael was managing at the time.

But saying that the Quintoses had harassed and killed farmers and workers, the New People’s Army claimed responsibility for the killings via an unsigned letter faxed to the Inquirer days after the incident.

In December 1997, a murder complaint was filed before a Mamburao court and farmer Eduardo Hermoso was arrested. This after Hermoso confessed he had served as a lookout and named Villarosa as the mastermind of the killing. Villarosa surrendered to authorities on Jan. 7, 1998.

The other suspects who were arrested were Ruben Balaguer, Gelito Bautista, Manolito Matricio, Josue Ungsod and Mario Tobias. Together with Hermoso, they were known as the “Mamburao 6.”

Death sentence

After eight years, Villarosa, along with the Mamburao 6, was sentenced to death for the murder of the Quintos brothers, in a decision meted out by Quezon City RTC Judge Maria Theresa Yadao on March 1, 2006. All seven were ordered to pay the victims’ heirs P200,000 in indemnity and moral damages and P279,845 in actual damages.

Recently the government asked the Supreme Court to void the acquittal of Villarosa and three others in the killing of the Quintos brothers.

The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) questioned the authority of the Court of Appeals to review and revise the rulings of the regional trial courts in criminal cases punishable by life imprisonment.

Although it reversed the guilty verdict handed down by Quezon City RTC Judge Ma. Theresa Yadao, the appellate court said the acquittal of Villarosa, Ruben Balaguer, Gelito Bautista and Mario Tobias for lack of evidence “does not suggest that they are innocent.” With reports from Ana Roa, Inquirer Research, and Marlon Ramos