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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider Mendoza murder suspects are Bilibid inmates --PNP

Mendoza murder suspects are Bilibid inmates --PNP

Published Jan 23, 2020 12:00 am
By Aaron Recuenco Two convicted inmates presently detained at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) were tagged as the principal suspects in the killing of former Batangas Rep. Edgar Mendoza Sr. and his two companions, police said on Thursday. PHOTO FROM PNP-CIDG/ MANILA BULLETIN PHOTO FROM PNP-CIDG/ MANILA BULLETIN Principal suspect Sherwin Sanchez opted to have him killed instead of paying millions of money he owed to the lawyer for various legal services, according to Brig. Gen. Joel Napoleon Coronel, director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG). “The two other companions of Attorney Mendoza (driver Nicanor Mendoza and bodyguard Ruel Ruiz) were collaterals,” said Coronel in a press briefing at Camp Crame. Coronel said Mendoza served as a legal counsel for Sanchez, starting when he was charged with murder for which he was convicted in 2015. Mendoza also handled various legal matters for Sanchez from financial transactions to real properties. At the time of his death on January 8, Mendoza was supposed to collect the millions in legal fees Sanchez owed him. It was then that he was killed. Based on the CIDG investigation, Sanchez sought the assistance of his fellow convict Arthur Fajardo for the manpower to kill Mendoza in order to spare himself from paying millions. Sanchez was reportedly getting impatient for the alleged unfulfilled promise of Mendoza to have him released from jail. Fajardo and Sanchez, according to Coronel, appeared to have developed friendship inside the NBP since 2015. Fajardo, a convicted leader of the notorious Fajardo kidnap-for-ransom group, agreed and tapped his wife Jael to mobilize people to carry out the killing. HOW IT WAS DONE The plan was to lure Mendoza to go to the house of the Fajardos in a subdivision in Calamba City by telling the lawyer that it was where he would be paid. Before he went missing, the family of Mendoza told the police that he was supposed to meet a client in Calamba City—which became the lead for the police to piece together the story. Jael, the wife of Fajardo, tapped two of her househelp to carry out the plan. They were Kristine Fernandez and Madonna Palermo. Police said the plan involves serving the three victims with coffee concocted with sleeping tablets. The coffee was served by Palermo. When the three victims fell asleep as a result of the sleeping tablets, it was then that they were all hit with blunt objects in the head by Rodel Mercado, reportedly a cousin of Sanchez. “When the victims were being transported to Tiaong, Quezon where their bodies were burned, they were already dead,” said Coronel. On the way to Tiaong, Mercado reportedly still stabbed the three victims. Upon reaching a remote area near a bridge in Tiaong, it was then that the bodies were burned at the backseat of the car. THE ARRESTS Coronel said they were able to piece together the story on the death of Mendoza through a text message with his family. He said that the good lead started when they were able to track down the house of the Fajardos as the place where Mercado went before his charred body was found. In the inquiry at the guardhouse of the subdivision, it was confirmed that Mendoza’s driver left his driver’s license which is required before entry to gated subdivisions. One of the househelps, according to Coronel, began spilling the beans when police started the questioning. Fernandez and Palermo were arrested for their participation in the crime and it was then that they reportedly squealed the names of Rodel Mercado, Carlo Acuna and Erickson Balbastro. Acuna and Balbastro reportedly participated in the transportation of the cadavers to Tiaong. They were both arrested. Mercado, on the other hand, remains at large. As for Jael Fajardo, Coronel said that she surrendered to the police with help of a police official assigned at the CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) regional police. SOLVED “By our own parameters on crime solution and crime clearance, this case is considered solved and is now elevated to the prosecution arm of the justice system,” said Gen. Archie Gamboa, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP). A case of three counts of murder were filed against the suspects, including Sherwin Sanchez and Arthur Fajardo.
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