Murder raps filed vs Zamboanga del Norte town mayor

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has filed criminal complaints  against the mayor of a Zamboanga del Norte town in connection with the killing of a man allegedly over a land dispute two years ago.

Facing a complaint for murder and arson are Siayan, Zamboanga del Norte Mayor Flora Villarosa, former municipal administrator Josecor Gepolongca, and former Villarosa aides Ernie Lumucso and Roy Maronse Balayong.

Filed before the Department of Justice on Thursday, the complaint stemmed from the death of one Restituto Sasuman and the burning of his house, which sat on land that the mayor had allegedly been asserting ownership over, in September 2016.

The dispute led to a court case which Sasuman lost in 2014, when a judge ruled the man could not prove prior physical possession of the lot, where he built a house only after it was leveled by the town government, the NBI said.

"The sworn statements of Ernie Lumocso and Roy Balayong clearly revealed that Mayor Flora Villarosa and Atty. Gepolongca planned and ordered the killing Restituto Sasuman because [of] the latter's vehement refusal to vacate the disputed land, [which] caused them difficulty to pursue the construction of the intended government projects thereat," the NBI said.

Lumucso and Balayong confessed to committing the crime.

The NBI's investigation found that Lumucso and Balayong, following instructions by the mayor and the ex-municipal administrator, abducted Sasuman, tied his hands, wrapped his head, brought him to a spillway and stabbed him to death.

Sasuman's corpse was found the following day, head wrapped in cloth, hands tied with electrical wire. He bore stab wounds on the chest and shoulders and a slash wound on the neck, the NBI said.

The man's house was allegedly burned on the same night he was abducted. —NB, GMA News