A former commander of the New People’s Army in Catanduanes could spend a maximum of 140 years in prison after he was found guilty on all counts for the 2005 Valentine’s Day ambush in Poniton, Virac.
Last week, the Regional Trial Court ruled that Richard Neri Lodronio, also known as “Bartolome Batalla,” “Bartolome Mendoza” and “Ka Bart”, is guilty beyond reasonable doubt for one count of murder, one count of direct assault with murder, and seven counts of direct assault with attempted murder.
In a decision rendered Aug. 11, 2022, RTC Branch 43 Acting Presiding Judge Genie G. Gapas-Agbada sentenced Lodrionio to reclusion perpetua for the first two charges, which carry a penalty of imprisonment ranging from 20 years and one day to 40 years.
For each of the six counts of direct assault with attempted murder, Ka Bart was sentenced to imprisonment ranging from four years and two months as minimum to 10 years as maximum.
He was also ordered to pay the heirs of Victoriano Reuyan and PO1 Arnold Sagrit a total of P350,000.00 each as civil indemnity and damages, plus P175,000.00 each to the six police officers wounded in the incident.
Lodronio, along with “Ka Ardex” and several John Does, were charged with the crimes last year following the arrest of the ex-NPA leader in Laguna province on March 7, 2021 by a team from different police and army units led by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Catanduanes provincial field unit.
The CIDG team served 11 warrants of arrest on Lodronio for his role in the 2002 raid on the police station and municipal hall of Bagamanoc, the ambush of Catanduanes police officers in JMA (Poniton), Virac in 2005 and another ambush in 2014 in Rizal, San Andres.
A native of Salvacion, Ragay, Camarines Sur, the accused, now 42, was the former secretary/commander of the Nerissa San Juan Command of KSS1/KSS2 operating in the island.
At the time of his arrest, Ka Bart was reportedly working as a tricycle driver while his wife, reportedly also a former rebel named Ka Chat, was tending to a small store inside the Mabuhay City subdivision in Mamatid, Cabuyao City.
The guerilla commander reportedly reached only third year in high school while his wife is allegedly a close relative of an incumbent town mayor in Catanduanes.
After being succeeded by Ka Melwyn in 2006, Ka Bart was reportedly assigned in Sorsogon and then in Tagkawayan, Quezon before deciding to lie low in Laguna while working as finance officer for the NPA.
The 2005 Valentine’s Day Ambush
On Valentine’s Day in 2005, the NPA commander allegedly led the carefully coordinated attack on the Virac airport security gate in which SPO2 Benigno Tuquero and SPO2 Rodolgfo Cortez were slain.
Then PNP provincial director Senior Supt. Gorgonio Rosero and several of his men boarded a Nissan Frontier pickup and a Mitsubishi L300 van and pursued the fleeing rebels, who were on board two motorcycles that sped towards the Buyo area.
Foiled by the swollen river, the police convoy headed back to the poblacion but previously positioned guerillas led by Ka Bart detonated an improvised explosive device at the side of the open-cut road in Poniton and unleashed gunfire on the pinned convoy.
PO1 Arnold Sagrit and Rosero’s civilian aide, Victoriano Reuyan, were hit by shrapnel and gunshots and subsequently died.
Aside from PD Rosero who was hit in the head, six other police officers were wounded in the ambush: Po1 Ronald Sallao, PO1 Franco Durante, PO1 David Adrian Saraspi, PO1 Erwin Jaucian, PO1 Christopher Bendal and PO1 Elmer Pintor.
It was PO1 Durante who testified in court that he saw the face of Ka Bart thrice as the latter fired at the police while the communist guerillas were retreating.
PO1 Sallao also saw the face of Ka Ardex as he signaled his comrades to go up the hill following the ambush.
Invoking denial and alibi as his defenses, the accused claimed he was not in Catanduanes during the Feb. 14, 2005 ambush as he had been living in barangay Mamatid, Cabuyao, Laguna since January 2005.
He presented his wife, Bibelo Aguilar Lodronio, his father-in-law Gil Camacho Aguilar, and two of his neighbors as his witnesses.
In giving credence to the testimony of Durante, Judge Gapas-Agbada said the cause of the prosecution was strengthened by NPA surrenderer and now CAFGU volunteer Rommel Pongan, who said he was with Ka Bart when they raided the Bagamanoc police station in 2002 and in Poniton, Virac during the 2005 ambush.
He claimed that a week before the Virac ambush, they were already in Dugui Too, with Ka Bart, Ka Dennis, Ka Banjo, Ka Melwin and Ka Ramon planning an attack at the airport targeted at the police provincial director.
In open court, he correctly identified Ka Bart from among the pictures of 10 Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDL) provided by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).
The Court also noted that in three other criminal cases for murder with direct assault and robbery for the Bagamanoc incident, the accused pleaded guilty and was convicted of lesser offenses after plea bargaining by the parties.
It stressed that while his witnesses confirmed his presence in Laguna in January 2005, Ka Bart could not state his whereabouts thereafter or on Feb. 14, 2005.
“Surely, the accused’ alibi cannot prevail over the credible testimonies of PMSG Durante and Pongan that Ka Bart was at the crime scene,” Judge Gapas-Agbada stressed.
In a separate ruling, Lodronio was acquitted of a robbery charge filed by SPO3 Filomeno Magdaraog Jr. who allegedly lost a Cal. 38 revolver and three boxes of M16 rifle ammunition to Ka Bart and several John Does on Sept. 5, 2004 in Rizal, San Andres.
In dropping the case against the former NPA leader, the Court noted that the inaccurate and erroneous allegations in the information and amended information of the case is tantamount to failure to properly inform the accused of the nature and cause of the accusation against him.
It stressed that the resolution of the prosecution did not state the value of the firearm and ammunition seized from the police officer, pegging without any basis the value of the properties at P20,000.00.
Citing the officer’s testimony on the origin and ownership of the ammunition, Judge Gapas-Agbada noted that first, he claimed that the three boxes were found by children while they were playing and then said that be brought the ammunition from Mindanao.
The prosecution failed to prove whether the ammunition belonged to SPO3 Magdaraog or the Philippine government, the judge said.
Ka Bart involved in other NPA ambushes
Lodronio was also accused of involvement in the Nov. 3, 2001 ambush on then Catanduanes police director Supt. Charles Calima Jr. and his passengers, then COMELEC provincial elections supervisor Atty. Ma. Juana Valeza and then former Municipal Trial Court Judge Honesto Morales Sr..
They were on board the officer’s Toyota Corolla on their way to Virac when three teenaged members of the NPA’s Sparrow Unit fired on them with rifles along a curved portion of the highway in barangay Rizal.
With a bullet shattering his left ankle, Calima sped away in zigzag fashion, but with its tires rendered useless, the car crawled to a stop some 100 meters from the ambush site where he dropped towards an embankment. His two passengers managed to get out and ran for safety towards nearby houses.
The rebels allegedly took a case folder containing PLEB documents as well as the Catanduanes PNP’s proposed budget.
According to the charges, Batalla also led the attack on Bagamanoc police station at noon of July 12, 2002 which was then manned by SPO1 Roberto Genaga and PO2 Patrick Panti. The two cops were killed but not after gunning down two of the attackers who came aboard two trucks.
Then police chief Insp. Bairan Sorrera said he and two others were conducting a COMELEC checkpoint at the outskirts of town at the border with Panganiban when the gunfire erupted.
The rebels took two M14 rifles, two M16 rifles, a 12-gauge shotgun, a Cal. 45 pistol and also looted several offices of a desktop computer and printer, UPS, karaoke, calculator, Cal. 38 revolver, cellphone and election supplies.
A blocking force of 15 men stopped vehicles from Panganiban while more than 35 others were at the municipio.