Lawyer pleads not guilty to killing wife 15 yrs. later

Nearly 15 years after he allegedly killed his wife, a lawyer considered the sixth most wanted man in Manila in 2014 was finally arraigned on murder charges.

John Fabico, who used to work at Philippine National Oil Co. and Energy Development Corp., pleaded not guilty to a charge of parricide before Judge Amor Crispina Lacorte of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 21 on Wednesday.

Fabico was accused of killing his wife, Edith, just days before Christmas in 2002 in their house in Tondo, Manila.

Based on police records, she was shot twice in the chest with her body found lying in a pool of blood in the master bedroom.

Fabico first claimed Edith committed suicide but he changed his story and accused their maid of killing her.

Edith’s sister-in-law Maria Belle Ocampo said that the accused exhausted all legal means to evade facing the case against him by filing petitions and several motions in different government agencies, including the Supreme Court, Department of Justice and Office of the Solicitor General, among others.

This was why he was arrested only on Aug. 27 in his mother’s house on Tikong Street in Malate, Manila, by members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

Chief Insp. Ronald Gayo, head of the CIDG’s Detective Operations Services Unit, said that the accused was under surveillance for a month before they caught him.

He rarely left the house but when he did, he often wore a cap and sunglasses to hide his face, he added.

On the day of his arrest, Fabico went out of the house several times to fix the water meter. On his first attempt, he covered his head with a towel. The second time, Fabico removed the towel and his shirt, making it easy for policemen to identify him.

“When the police approached him to ask for his name, he denied that he was John Fabico. He only admitted his real name after we showed him his photos,” Gayo said.

Fabico was transferred to the Manila City Jail on Aug. 30.