Murder charges have been filed against one of the teenagers tagged in the brutal killing of Dr. Andres Gumban before the Bacolod Regional Trial Court, Senior Supt. Ricardo de la Paz, Bacolod Police director, said yesterday.
The filing of the charges against Pof Pascual, 18, of Brgy. Tadlong, Sagay City, Negros Occidental, was recommended by inquest prosecutor Dennis Jarder, and approved by City Prosecutor Amando Abanado Thursday, de la Paz said.
The City Prosecutor’s Office has asked the Social Development Center social worker to evaluate whether the other suspect, a 16-year-old from Cadiz City, whose name is being withheld for being a minor, acted with discernment when he committed the crime, the police director added.
The social worker was given five days to submit an evaluation report to the City Prosecutor’s Office before it decides on the case to be filed against the 16-year-old, de la Paz said.
Paolo Sajo, officer-in-charge of SDC, said their social worker has finished evaluating the minor and submitted the report to the City Prosecutor’s Office. He, however, did not disclose the findings.
Abanado said that the video taken through the cellular phone of the minor that showed how Gumban was brutally killed was vital evidence to indict the two suspects for murder. It was also clear that they were the aggressors contrary to their claims that they invoked self defense because the doctor made sexual advances on the minor, he said.
The angle of robbery was not established because there
were no items owned by the doctor that were recovered from the two suspects when they were arrested, Abanado said.
The father of the 16-year-old said that no lawyer would accept the case when asked to defend his son after the cellular phone video was shown, but Abanado said they could avail of a lawyer from the Public Attorney’s Office.
Meanwhile, De la Paz, City Police’s Women and Children’s Complaints Desk chief, Insp. Jovy Cabcaban and the members of the media went to the SDC yesterday, where the 16-year-old minor is being held.
The minor is in a cell separate from the rest because among the 46 youth in conflict with the law detained at the SDC, he is the only one facing a heinous crime, Sajo said.
The policemen assigned at the SDC were told to guard the minor 24 hours a day and make sure that only his family can visit him, he added.
Pascual and the 16-year-old, whom Gumban met on Facebook, were arrested after they killed the doctor at his house at Regent Pearl Homes Subdivision in Brgy. Alijis, Bacolod, last week.
Gumban’s remains are now lying in state at the Chapel of Hope at the Rolling Hills Memorial Chapels in Brgy. Mandalagan. He will be laid to rest tomorrow at the Rolling Hills Memorial Park after a 10 a.m. mass at the Triumph of the Holy Cross Church in Brgy. Estefania, Bacolod.*APN
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