CEBU’s number one most wanted person, who has been hiding for 16 years, is now in the hands of authorities following his arrest Friday afternoon in Davao City.
Crispin Guba, 40, who has a pending warrant of arrest for murder, was caught inside his house in Freedom Village in Barangay San Antonio.
Supt. Fermin Armendarez of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 7 said Guba was identified as the suspect in the fatal shooting of Bobby Nellas last Oct. 3, 1997.
Through the coordination of local police, CIDG 7 operatives located Guba, who has since been working as a cashier at a gasoline station in Davao City.
Armed with an arrest warrant, intelligence operatives SPO3 Pablo Gentalian and SPO1 Eugenio Badrina went to Guba’s house.
The warrant was issued by retired Regional Trial Court (RTC) 7 Branch 18 judge Galicano Arriesgado last Oct. 25, 2001.
Not me
“He (Guba) didn’t put up a fight,” Armendarez told reporters.
Guba, together with five other men, were in a drinking session inside Jet 2000 Bar in Barangay Lawaan III, Talisay City before the incident happened in 1997.
They got irked when Nellas approached them and suddenly took the microphone from a videoke machine. They left the bar, but came back.
This time, witness Joey Sevilla said, Guba poked a gun at Nellas and shot him. Nellas died from a gunshot wound in his breast.
Following the incident, Armendarez said the suspect went into hiding in different areas such as Misamis Occidental, Masbate and Zamboanga before ending up in Davao City.
Guba, when interviewed by reporters yesterday, denied killing Nellas. “I don’t have anything to do with his death,” he said.
Escape
Guba said he was about to take part in mauling Nellas’s group when he suddenly heard gunfire, prompting him to run.
“I don’t know who shot him because I ran away,” he said.
Guba said he went out of town after the incident because he got scared the victim’s family and relatives might get him.
Armendarez, during the interview, said Guba was placed as the number one most wanted because he has been hiding for a long time.
In a press release, Senior Supt. Ritchie Posadas, head of CIDG 7, said he ordered his personnel to check all the files and go after wanted persons. This is in support of CIDG’s flagship project Oplan Pagtugis.
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