Ex-mayor guilty of homicide

Witnesses identified mayor; judge saw no evidence of premeditation, thus ruled out murder

JUDGE Sylva Paderanga yesterday convicted the former mayor of Lezo town in Aklan Province for killing a broadcaster in 2004.

Paderanga, of the Regional Trial Court Branch 16 in Cebu City, found Alfredo Arcenio guilty of homicide for shooting to death Bombo Radyo broadcaster Herson “Boy” Hinolan.

“Under the obtaining circumstances, this court finds that the prosecution was able to amply establish and prove the guilt of the accused of the crime of homicide beyond reasonable doubt,” read Paderanga’s 26-page decision.

The judge sentenced Arcenio from eight to 14 years in jail and ordered him to pay the victim’s family P187, 761 as fine.

Arcenio, who declined to be interviewed, was escorted by jail guards back to his detention cell.

“Mabulok na sana siya sa kulungan,” Hinolan’s widow, Aphrodite, told reporters after the judge handed down the decision.

“Justice has been served. Kahit gusto namin na murder sana, masaya na kami sa decision ng korte,” Aphrodite said.

She said her husband would have been happy about the decision. The widow also expressed her gratitude to Prosecutors Gandhi Truya and Hazel Valdez for successfully prosecuting the case.

Aphrodite, 54, was accompanied by her daughter, Kim, and sister-in-law, Herlen, in attending yesterday’s promulgation of decision.

Paderanga tried the murder case against Arcenio after the Supreme Court ordered the transfer of the case from the Aklan trial court to Cebu in 2008.

During the trial, the prosecution presented six witnesses, while the defense offered the lone testimony of Arcenio as his defense.

Chase

One of the eyewitness, Niño Suñer, testified last May 27, 2008 that he saw Arcenio chasing Hinolan and shooting him at around 10:45 p.m. in Nov. 13, 2004.

The shooting happened near a carnival in Mabini St. in Kalibo, Aklan.

Suñer said he was sitting on a tricycle parked in a bodega outside the carnival when Hinolan came outside to relieve himself.

Suñer then saw Arcenio, wearing a black jacket and a cap, approach Hinolan.

According to Suñer, Arcenio was about two meters away from Hinolan when he heard a gunshot.

Holding a pistol wrapped in a magazine, Arcenio allegedly chased Hinolan when the latter fled toward a gas station nearby.

He said Arcenio tripped and fell but still caught up with Hinolan. The mayor allegedly shot Hinolan two more times until the victim fell on the road.

Arcenio then boarded a motorcycle and fled from the scene. Suñer brought Hinolan to Aklan’s provincial hospital, but he did not make it alive.

In his testimony in court last Feb. 9, 2012, Arcenio denied shooting to death Hinolan after the latter repeatedly attacked him in his radio program over issues concerning his administration.

“I am not capable of killing anyone because I also have a name to protect,” Arcenio told the court.

Arcenio labeled as “false testimony” and “all lies” the affidavit of a witness, who said that he saw the former mayor shoot the broadcaster.

The former mayor said he was at home when the shooting happened on Nov. 13, 2004.

When told that the supposed witness identified him as the gunman, Arcenio said he was “shocked” and felt “very depressed.”

Another witness also executed an affidavit tagging him as the one who killed the broadcaster.

But Arcenio denied it, saying the female witness even went to his hometown in Lezo and verified his identity.

He said the witness lied when she claimed she identified him as the gunman when she saw him at- tending a flag ceremony on Nov. 14, 2012, a Sunday.

Arcenio, a former military officer, said he felt depressed because he has been incarcerated for several years for a crime he did not commit.

Homicide

In the decision, Judge Paderanga said Arcenio was positively identified by Suñer as the one who chased and shot Hinolan twice while the victim was running.

Likewise, Paderanga convicted Arcenio of homicide, and not murder, after the prosecution failed to establish and prove the qualifying circumstance of “evident premeditation.”

“In the present case, indeed, there was treachery adopted in shooting the victim as the latter was then urinating and had no opportunity to defend himself,” said Paderanga.

The judge also gave weight to Arcenio’s “mitigating circumstance” when he voluntarily surrendered.