Kon ako pa silang badlongon, maglalis pa mi. Dili man gud na sila mopatuo badlongon. Mao na akong gibuhat, gipusil. Giuna nako ang naa sa sakyanan, unya ang usa mora man og mohamag, giapil nako – — Jonathan Sanchez (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA).
Parking dispute sparks the twin shooting
The Paderanga father and son allegedly often blocked with their cars the narrow road leading to the construction site that he was guarding.
It was for this reason that security guard Jonathan Sanchez shot dead prominent Cebuano lawyer Goering George Paderanga, 62, and critically wounded his son, Gerik Caesare, 37, also a lawyer.
Sanchez, 35, whom the police found was an alleged drug user and who was reportedly treated twice for a mental illness, did not resist when the police went to his parents’ house in Barangay Talamban, Cebu City to arrest him at 10 a.m. yesterday.
Sanchez’s arrest came 14 hours after shooting the Paderanga father and son outside their law office on F. Ramos Street in Barangay Sta. Cruz, Cebu City at 8:45 p.m. on Thursday.
Goering, the husband of Judge Sylva Aguirre-Paderanga of the Regional Trial Court Branch 16 in Cebu City, succumbed to three gunshot wounds in the body. Gerik was still fighting for his life at the Cebu Velez General Hospital as of Friday afternoon.
No autopsy was conducted on Goering who was immediately laid to rest at the Angelicum Garden of Angels in Mandaue City on Friday afternoon, in deference to his wish that should he die, he did not want to be embalmed and would rather be buried within24 hours of his death, according to a relative.
Sanchez said he was angry at Gerik because he blocked the entry of the cement mixer to the construction site that he was guarding.
“Pado’ng naman gud ang mixer unya nibabag man sa agianan ang sakyanan (sa abogado). Mogahi unya ang semento. (The mixer was on the way to the construction site and the lawyer’s vehicle blocked the drive way. The cement might dry up),” he told reporters.
The lawyers’ law firm is located along the narrow road that leads to the construction site of a condominium project of Crown Regency Club Ultima being undertaken by Monocrete Construction.
Sanchez claimed there was never any heated confrontation that ensued between him and the two lawyers, but he admitted he was not happy that they would ignore him whenever he would ask the lawyers to remove their vehicles.
“Wala man koy kasuko ana nila. Wala pu’y nagsugo nako. (I have no grudge against them. No one also asked me to kill them),” he said.
Then he calmly talked about how he shot the two lawyers.
“Kon ako pa silang badlongon, maglalis pa mi. Dili man gud na sila mopatuo badlongon. Mao na akong gibuhat, gipusil. Giuna nako ang naa sa sakyanan, unya ang usa mora man og mohamag, giapil nako,” he said.
(If I call their attention, we still have to argue. They refused to listen. So that was what I did. I shot them. I first shot the person inside the vehicle and since the other one tried to attack me, I decided to shoot him as well)
Sanchez, of the Invincible Armada Security Agency, did not show any remorse or uttered a word when asked if he regretted what he did.
The barefooted suspect was presented to Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), shortly after his arrest.
Taliño commended Cebu City policemen led by Senior Supt. Joel Doria for the immediate arrest of Sanchez.
“Our policemen did their job. This time, we can say that this particular case has been solved with the arrest of the suspect,” he said.
Probe on Invincible Armada
Taliño said they will also conduct an investigation on Sanchez’s security agency to find out if violations were made in hiring the suspect.
“For someone to become a security guard, he or she should comply with some requirements which include neuro-psychiatric examination. We will go over the records of the security agency,” he said.
DORIA
But Doria, director of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), believed that Sanchez might only wanted to present himself as a mentally ill person so that he can use it as a defense in court.
“That is just an alibi,” he said.
Mark Jason Saraosa, security officer of Invincible Armada Security Agency, said they are willing to cooperate with the police in the investigation.
He said Sanchez was never involved in any trouble or violence until the latter shot the two lawyers last Thursday.
“Hilomon man na siya. Buotan nang tawhana. (He is the silent type and a good man),” Saraosa told Cebu Daily News.
Charges of murder and frustrated murder will be filed against Sanchez before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office when work resumes next week.
Sanchez was among the security guards assigned by Invincible Armada to the Monocrete Construction Philippines Inc., the contractor of an extension project of Club Ultima.
PO3 Jerry Genelaso, of the CCPO Homicide Division, said Goering earlier filed a civil suit in court against Monocrete Construction to prohibit large trucks and concrete mixers from entering the narrow road in front of their law firm.
The court eventually issued a temporary restraining order but Goering opted not to implement it, hoping that he and Monocrete Construction would settle the issues. But Goering was killed before a negotiation could happen.
Dumbfounded
Sanchez’s wife Charito was dumbfounded when she learned from news reports Friday morning that her husband was the primary suspect in the crime.
“Pagkadungog nako, naglain ang akong paminaw. Nagkurog-kurog ko. Wala ko kasabot sa ako gibati. (When I heard about the news, I felt bad. I was trembling. I could not understand what I felt),” she said.
Charito, 35, went with the Cebu City policemen who visited her at their residence in Barangay Mambaling early morning Friday to help them convince Sanchez to surrender.
She pleaded to her husband to surrender for the sake of their family.
Charito admitted that the father of her five children – aged 14, 12, 11, four and one – uses illegal drugs and was treated twice for a mental illness.
At around 10:40 p.m. on Thursday, about two hours after the shooting incident, Charito said her husband phoned him to say he was not coming home as he was asked to report for duty by his security agency. She called him back but he did not answer until he could no longer be reached, she added.
She said she only learned from news reports Friday morning that her husband was accused of shooting the two lawyers.
“Maayo na lang nadakpan siya kaysa madisgrasya pa siya. (It was better that he was arrested instead of getting killed),” she said as she wiped tears from her eyes.
Charito said Sanchez is a quiet man who keeps secrets and problems to himself.
One of the two witnesses who positively identified Sanchez as the shooter said the security guard waited for Gerik’s sports utility vehicle (SUV), an Isuzu Trooper, to arrive.
After he saw Gerik parked his vehicle in front of the Paderanga law firm, Sanchez approached Gerik and shot the latter.
A house help and Gerik’s one-year-old nephew, who were with him in the vehicle, hid themselves inside the SUV.
When he heard the bursts of gunfire, Goering rushed out of the law firm and was then repeatedly shot by Sanchez. The assailant then fled on board a public utility jeep.
The witness, who was just about 50 meters away, said Sanchez was wearing a jacket over his uniform when he shot the victims.
Justice
The Paderanga family begged off from issuing any statement for the time being, asking the media to respect their privacy.
Dr. Billy Jaca, a close friend of Goering, meanwhile affirmed he was privy to disagreements between the lawyer and Monocrete Construction over the use of the narrow road in front of the victim’s law firm.
He said he and Goering even brought the matter to the attention of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña who advised them to discuss the issues with the construction firm and submit to him whatever they agreed upon.
OSMEÑA
“I don’t know of any prior confrontation between Attorney Goering (and anyone from the construction firm),” he said in a radio interview yesterday.
Jaca said he had just spent dinner with Goering hours before he was killed.
“Sakit kaayo paminawon. I hope mahatagan og hustisya. (This is just so painful. I hope justice will soon be served),” he said.
Since 2008, at least eight lawyers in Cebu had been brutally killed.
In August 2015, lawyer Amelie Alegre and her law associate, Briccio Joseph Boholst, were shot by two unidentified men on board a motorcycle while inside the car of Boholst in Mandaue City.
Alegre died on the spot due to multiple gunshot wounds on the body. Boholst was hit on the left leg while their accountant Antonio Pino was hit in the stomach. Boholst and Pino survived.
The perpetrators had not been identified to date.
In February 2015, lawyer Noel Archival was ambushed along with his three companions in Dalaguete town in southern Cebu. At least three officers of the Highway Patrol Group were charged in court but they remain at large.
In 2013, lawyer Jubian Achas was killed by a disgruntled litigant in one of the courtrooms at the Cebu Palace of Justice along with his client Dr. Rene Rafols.
The attack carried out by a Canadian expat John Pope who also seriously injured lady prosecutor Maria Theresa Calibugan-Casiño.
Also in that grim list of lawyers claimed by a hail of bullets was female lawyer Arbet Sta. Ana-Yongco who prosecuted the parricade case of cult leader Ruben Ecleo who was accused of killing his wife Alona Bacolod-Ecleo.
The alleged assassin, Michael Favila, a member of Ecleo’s cult, was arrested but he died from complications to diabetes in 2009.
In 2010, former Regional State Prosecutor Hernando Masangkay was killed inside his residence in Talisay City. Charges were filed against a 17-year-old boy who was accused of killing Masangkay.
In 2009, public prosecutor Patrick Ian Osorio was killed in an ambush in Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City. The two perpetrators were convicted by the trial court.
In 2008, lawyer Richard William Sison was shot dead around noon in Cebu City. Nemuel Sumabong, a security guard, was convicted in 2012.