A REGIONAL court has acquitted three suspects in the ambush of former Gingoog mayor Ruthie Guingona for lack of evidence.
Acquitted were Modesto Bernas, and Reynaldo Gundaya, all members of a farmers’ association, and Joel Yagao, a member of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines-Northern Mindanao Sub-Region (RMP-NMR).
The three were acquitted of two murders and one frustrated murder in connection with the attack on the then mayor Ruthie Guingona on April 20, 2013 in Gingoog City’s outskirt village of Capitulangan.
Guingona, mother of Sen. Teofisto Guingona III and wife of former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr., survived the ambush but was wounded. Two of her security aides were killed.
Judge Heravio Undaloc of the Regional Trial Court Branch 43 ordered the release of the three suspects on Wednesday last week, the RMP-NMR said in a statement Monday.
Although acquitted in connection with the Guingona ambush, the military has filed new cases against Bernas on the day of the acquittal, said Sister Fatima Somogod of the RMP-NMR.
Yagao is still facing murder charges in the municipality of Claveria while Bernas, who is still in jail, faces charges in connection with the military encounter with the New People’s Army (NPA) in Alagatan, Gingoog City in July 2015.
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