BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
OTON, Iloilo – Justice has not been served yet to the family of slain businessman Romeo Capalla, a former rebel.
This was the sentiment of militant groups in Panay two months after Capalla was shot in the public market of this town.
Reylan Vergara, secretary-general of human rights alliance Karapatan, and his companions yesterday expressed dismay on the way police is handling the case of the 65-year-old brother of retired Archbishop Fernando Capalla.
The police had filed a murder case against a suspect, Julie Gabino, but the militants were unconvinced.
“The filing of a case is not a guarantee or assurance that justice would be served,“ Vergara told Panay News. “We are not even convinced that (Gabino) is the culprit. What the police did was show to the community that they did their best when in fact, they failed to identify the real killers and even the mastermind.”
Vergara urged the police not to stop their investigation.
“Pagkatapos nga nag-file sila case against Gabino, nag-stop na sila sang ila investigation,” he lamented.
Witnesses said there were other men obviously serving as lookouts of the two men who shot Capalla.
Capalla was the chairman of the board of the Panay Fair Trade Center (PFTC) that exports natural and organic products such as muscovado sugar and ginger tea produced by local farmers.
Capalla was shot dead around 6 p.m. on March 15.
The two gunmen with three “back-ups” hurriedly fled on two motorcycles toward Tigbauan town after the shooting, witnesses said.
Capalla was rushed to the Western Visayas Medical Center in Iloilo City but was pronounced dead on arrival. He succumbed to two gunshot wounds on the head.
The victim was believed to be the commander of the Corazon Chiva Waling-Waling Command of the New People’s Army’s (NPA) Komiteng Rehiyon Panay (KRP) in the late 1970s to the early 1980s.
He was arrested in August 2005 for allegedly setting on fire a construction firm’s facility in Guimbal town in 2004.
He was, however, released after spending 32 days in detention. The court ruled there was no sufficient evidence against him./PN
