Will Killer Cop Nuezca Follow the Fate of Mass Murderer Sgt. Alipio?

 

DESPITE INVOKING INSANITY AS DEFENSE

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Cashiered killer cop former Staff Sgt. Jonel Nuezca had invoked the defense of insanity through the advice of his lawyer so he can avoid the conviction of a life sentence on the double murders where the shocked Filipino nation saw through a video footage how he pumped four bullets from his .9mm hand gun to the heads of terrorized mother and son’s Sonia and Frank Anthony Gregorio of Barangay Cabayaoasan, Paniqui in Tarlac.

I remembered Pangasinan Police Officer-3 (present equivalent of a Sergeant) Domino Alipio shooting to death three teachers and a staff of Pangasinan National High School (PNHS) at capital town's Lingayen in Pangasinan in September 2014.

Alipio, who was engaged in a money lending business, went to PNHS in Lingayen at 4 P.M of that fateful September 1 to collect the money - loan incurred by teachers there.

But when his agent and collector returned empty-handed, the cop fumed. Wielding a .45 hand gun and lugging an M-16 assault rifle, he entered the secondary education level campus, one of the biggest in Pangasinan, and fired at those teachers who were in a meeting.

KILLER COPS. From left Staff Sergeant  Jonel Nuezca and Sergeant Domino Alipio. Photo is internet grab.

Minutes later, three people lay dead—Florenda Flores, a teacher of Labrador National High School and Alipio’s agent; Jonalito Urayan, Alipio’s collector; and Acedillo Sison, a teacher of the PNHS.

Another PNHS mentor, Linda Sison, died while being taken to a hospital in the capital town.

Three teachers ---Ferdinand Entimano, Jovito Jimenez and Juliet Molano—were shot and wounded and brought to various hospitals in the province.

Florante Tamondong, PNHS principal, said the shooting ensued as teachers and students were ending classes on that afternoon. He said no student was hurt as they were able to run to the nearby Narciso Ramos Sports Complex when shots rang out.

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What prompted Alipio to commit a mass murder was the pressure he got from his police superiors where one of them was a general who entrusted him how to loan monies in the market places and even to the teachers in public schools.

The staff of Alipio, just like the 5-6's usury loan of the Indians, collect the dues everyday in those commercial stalls.

Alipio, who was once our college student in the present University of Luzon, was a soft spoken Bible verses quoting averaged height but stout person.

When he committed that dastardly heinous acts, he scandalized people in and out of Pangasinan, his patron then Brig. General Marlou Chan, a friend and avid reader of my blog, called me for advice how Alipio could get off the hook.

When I told Chan, who was assassinated in January 2020 and the owner, allegedly, of the millions of pesos of monies Alipio lent to borrowers, he became excited when I said off-the-cuff that his cop could use insanity as defense.

“Maganda iyang advice mo Mortz! Sige kausapin ko iyong abugado,” he said.

“Bakit hindi niyo na-aral iyan sa law school nasa Revised Penal Code iyan? Kahit sinong abugado alam iyan,” I told the member of the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1985 who was at his office in the Police Regional Office in San Fernando City, La Union.

He did not retort about his failure to remember about a defense whenever a person killed somebody but wanna wiggle out on his liability of incarceration that will not be less than 20 years in the National Penitentiary (famously known as Muntinlupa or New Bilibid Prison) in Muntinlupa City in a snail paced litigation that could span for seven to ten years after it was filed in the Regional Trial Court in Lingayen, to the Court of Appeals, and to its final arbitration of the magistrates of the Supreme Court at Padre Faura Street in Ermita, Metro Manila

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According to the Revised Penal Code, the circumstances which exempt a person from criminal liability:

1. An xxx insane person, unless the latter has acted during a lucid interval.

When xxx an insane person has committed an act which the law defines as a felony (delito), the court shall order his confinement in one of the hospitals or asylums established for persons thus afflicted, which he shall not be permitted to leave without first obtaining the permission of the same court. (Article 12, Paragraph 1)

According to the jurisprudence, the test of imbecility or insanity is complete deprivation of intelligence in the commission of the act, that is, the accused acted without the least discernment (People vs.Remegio Cruz). 

Provincial Assistant Prosecutor Niño Orlino, a pal, told me on my Messenger’s inquiry when I asked him if Alipio asked the defense of insanity and how was the progress of his criminal cases.

He said: “Oo pero hinde naniwala ang court. Convicted siya (Yes he used insanity as defense but the Regional Trial Court in Lingayen did not believe him. It convicted him)”.

He said the case is at the Court of Appeals and the decision will be out anytime from now.

In case the C.A upholds the decision of the RTC, Alipio and his lawyer can appeal to the Supreme Court and we the hoi polloi wait for another three years (I opined) for the magistrates there to uphold or reject in year 2024 the decision of the C.A.

Susmariosep, that’s 10 years of waiting for the grinding turtle paced blind folded Lady Justice to decide before justness can be acquired by the families of those four dead individuals or an exoneration for Alipio if he indeed became buang -- as the Visayan would describe a mentally deranged person.

So if Sergeant Nuezca committed his murderous streak last December 2020, if we count another ten years before the S.C finally convicts him then that will be year 2030 for all of us to see that indeed the elusive justice has been served to the Gregorios and the Filipino Nation whose name, the latter, is prominently and boldly printed at the left upper parts of the bond paper's Complaint Affidavit and the Court’s Order as: PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES VERSUS JONEL NUEZCA for DOUBLE MURDERS.

READ MY OTHER BLOG/COLUMN:

Paniqui,Tarlac Murders, My Lai Massacre: Shockers to Humanity

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)