MANILA – A lower court in Metro Manila sentenced to life imprisonment a father and his son, who served as mayor in their town in the Bicol Region for the killing of an official of the Department of Education in 2004.
The Regional Trial Court of Manila imposed the penalty on Carlos Estonillo Senior and his son Reinario after they were found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of murder, along with three of their bodyguards.
Estonillo and his son served as mayor in their town of Placer, Masbate province in the Bicol Region when the killing, believed to be election-related, occurred.
The elder Estonillo was serving his third and final term as mayor of Placer at the time of the killing on April 5, 2004.
He was succeeded by his son, Reinario, who won in the May 2004 mayoral polls.
Aside from their life term, the court also ordered the Estonillos and their bodyguards to pay the equivalent of $3,000 to the heirs of the victim, identified as Floro Cases Senior, who was then a district supervisor in one of the public schools in Placer.
The criminal charges were initially heard by one of the lower courts in Masbate but the Supreme Court (SC) granted the petition of the victim’s family to have the trial transferred to the city of Manila.
In allowing the transfer, the SC noted the great and imminent danger that the prosecution witnesses and the members of Cases family, particularly his widow, faced if the case remained in Masbate.
In convicting the Estonillos, the court gave weight to the testimonies of several prosecution witnesses who said Cases was killed because he supported the rival of Reinario in the May 2004 elections.
In particular, the court cited the testimony of a witness, Servando Rosales, a former bodyguard of the Estonillos, who tagged the father and his son as the masterminds in the killing.
Rosales also told the court he was present in at least two instances when the Estonillos and their henchmen talked about the plan to kill Cases due to his perceived support of Reinario’s rival in the coming elections.
Rosales also testified that he did not participate in the killing because of his friendship with one of the sons of Cases.
Another witness, Carlo Antipolo, positively identified the three Estonillo bodyguards as the ones he saw shoot and kill Cases as he passed by the school on board his motorcycle, where the crime occurred at around 6 p.m. on April 5, 2004.
After the killing, Antipolo said he saw Estonillo and his son arrive at the scene where he heard one of the bodyguards say, “Mission accomplished, Sir.”
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