ILOILO City – A resident of Barangay Calaparan, Arevalo district charged with murder 30 years ago was finally arrested.
From his house, the 55-year-old Nelson Gallinero was taken to the detention facility of the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Barangay Magsaysay Village, La Paz district yesterday around 5:30 p.m., six years after returning home from Metro Manila where he moved in 1981 after stabbing to death a certain George Macariza in Barangay Calaparan.
According to Superintendent Anthony Gantang, officer-in- charge of CIDG Iloilo Provincial Field Unit, Gallinero’s was the oldest archived warrant of arrest they have served.
Gallinero said he returned to Iloilo City in 2012. He denied hiding from the police for three decades and claimed he did not know he was charged with murder.
The warrant of arrest (Criminal Case No. 14282) was issued by Presiding Judge Carlos Gonzales of the Regional Trial Court on June 22, 1984 three years after the stabbing incident.
No bail bond was recommended for Gallinero’s temporary liberty.
The arrest warrant was archived after efforts to locate the suspect turned futile, according to the CIDG.
Recently CIDG received information about Gallinero’s presence in Barangay Calaparan and the suspect’s murder case. It started digging court and police records about the man.
Gallinero’s victim Macariza was stabbed with a stainless knife on Dec. 5, 1981, according to the CIDG.
The suspect offered his own version of what happened.
“Macariza stabbed me with a barbeque skewer. I did not know who he was but I gathered he was there attending a benefit dance. I hit him with a piece of wood. Other residents of Calaparan mauled him. The next thing I knew, he had a stab wound,” said Gallinero.
Gallinero named a certain “Nga-nga” as the one who stabbed Macariza.
He said he moved to Metro Manila to find a job a week after the incident. There he got married and raised a family.
“I did not know that three years after the incident, I was charged with murder. I was already in Manila,” he told Panay News.
According to Gantang, his men verified the information CIDG received about Gallinero.
“The archived warrant of arrest was validated by the court on Nov. 11 kaya na-serve namin. Kahit matagal na ito, acknowledged pa rin ng court,” he said./PN
