2011 QC massacre

A Quezon City judge has ordered the arrest of five members of a family in Barangay Batasan Hills for their alleged involvement in the murder of five neighbors in connection with a land dispute in 2011.

The Quezon City Police District, however, said the five wanted persons had already left their house and had apparently gone into hiding.

Judge Edgar Dalmacio Santos of Quezon City Regional Trial Court – Branch 222 issued arrest warrants against brothers Francisco, Benjamin and Benedicto Badilla; Francisco’s son Arjay and Benjamin’s son Melvin.

The court also ordered the arrest of a sixth suspect identified only as Ecat.

Insp. Elmer Monsalve, homicide section chief of the QCPD’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, said a seventh suspect, Marlon Andamo, was already in police custody after being arrested of drug possession.

All seven accused were charged with five counts of murder and one count of frustrated murder for the Nov. 28, 2011, massacre of five persons in  Kalayaan B, Barangay Batasan Hills.

They were all tagged in the fatal shooting of the homeowners association president Liberato Paez, 50; Rogelio Diomampo, 36; Rogelio Agustin, 49; Germinio Manansala, 44, and Armando Garcia, 47.

Another resident, Zaldy Ballesteros, 43, was wounded in the shooting.

Monsalve said three of the suspects were then employees of the barangay government, with Francisco serving as the executive officer, Benjamin working as a committee member, and Ecat working as a watchman.

In 2011, Paez’s wife Jessica told police that the Badillas were neighborhood toughies in Batasan Hills who could not present proof of their longtime residency in the area and were in danger of losing their homes because of a government plan to award the land to others.