March 29, 2024

Two suspects who were accused of planning the murder of one Franklin Bambico in September 2016 were found not guilty by a Baguio Regional Trial Court.

In a nine-page decision promulgated on June 15, Baguio RTC Branch 3 Judge Emmanuel Cacho Rasing cleared Leticia Juquiana and Jumar Aganon of the murder charge due to insufficiency of evidence.

The incident happened in the afternoon of Sept. 9, 2016 near the intersection of Mirador-Dominican, Lourdes, and Queen of Peace in Baguio City.

Bambico was shot in the head by an unidentified male rider of a motorcycle while tending to the vehicle of his live-in partner who was with him when he was shot.

The motorcycle used by the unidentified gunman was allegedly driven by suspect Aganon, who according to witnesses plotted to kill the victim with Juquiana, who allegedly harbored ill-feelings towards Bambico due to unredeemed items he pawned to her and that she will get a reward if the victim is killed.

Several witnesses claimed Juquiana and Aganon conspired to kill Bambico based on their conversations and actuations that made them believe they were planning the crime, but they did not actually see the victim killed.

In its decision, the court ruled that while the witnesses may have overheard the suspects talk about killing the suspect and that the motorcycle used, Aganon, and the unidentified rider were apparently caught in a CCTV surveillance footage camera, it was not shown that the riders were the ones who shot the victim as the shooting itself was not caught in the footage.

Among others, the court said harboring ill-feelings and expectation of reward, even if true, could not equate to proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt that one was involved in the murder.

“The accused here may actually be the culprits. There is, however, no proof of their guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Thus, as one accepted maxim goes, it is better to liberate a guilty man than to unjustly keep in prison one whose guilt has not been proved by the required quantum of evidence,” the court decision reads. – Hanna C. Lacsamana