Details of the callous and savage murder that brutally snuffed out the life of Manuelita “Mia” Mascariñas-Green, emerged on Friday, February 18, 2017 in a criminal complaint made public and filed against the four gunmen who mercilessly fired 27 shots with 8 bullets that riddled the body of the 49 year old mother, lawyer and public accountant.

Stuart James Green, a British national filed murder and multiple attempted murder complaints against the assailants in a five-page complaint-affidavit stating “I am filing this case as the husband of a murdered wife, father of three minor children and employer of their nanny”.

A restive public expressed dismay over the inability of law enforcement agencies to arrest the suspects despite early positive identification from eyewitnesses to the killing and public knowledge of their possible whereabouts.

The murder complaint was filed barely two minutes before the close of office hours – 4:58 PM at the Office of the City Prosecutor before City Prosecutor Romeo Chatto and Glena Rose Alejado-Lim, Public Prosecutor.

The alleged killers were identified as Lloyd Lancer Sylio Gonzaga and Romarico Templado Benigian and two “John Does”. Gonzaga and Benigian are reportedly residents of Barangay Tawala, Panglao and are known to be staying at the Alona Embrace Hotel, formerly Alona Studio Hotel along Ester A. Lim Drive, Purok 6, Tawala, Panglao.

All four suspects are still at large and are the subject of a police “dead or alive” manhunt ordered by Philippine National Police Regional Director 7 Noel Taliño. A (PhP600,000) six-hundred thousand peso bounty for information on their whereabouts was offered by the Green family and various groups.

HORRIFIC CRIME

Green, in his affidavit painfully narrated how her 10-year-old daughter broke the story of her mother’s death saying “It was him Dad” pointing to the “enemy of Conrad (Blomqvist) in the case of mommy about some silly thieving of a resort in Panglao and there were two of them”.

Conrada Gubalani Otero Blomqvist, a 52 year old widow sought legal assistance from Atty. Mia on July 12, 2016 after her involvement in an ownership dispute over the 38 room Alona Embrace Hotel sitting on a 1,858 square meter prime lot located at Ester A. Lim Drive, Purok 6, Barangay Tawala, Panglao.

Blomqvist and Gonzaga are also entangled in a bitter legal squabble over possession of a Toyota Hi-Ace Commuter Van with the late lawyer as her legal counsel.  
The description of the two identified suspects, according to the statement of his daughter, allegedly matched the facial profile of Gonzaga who was described as “very ugly” and that of Benigian as having “a round fat face and a wide flat nose”, according to Green.

According to Green’s affidavit, his daughter described the events after Gonzaga and Benigian pumped bullets into Atty. Mia’s body saying “after he shot mommy, the other guy (Benigian) pointed the gun at the four of us in the backseat, he pointed at each of us one by one Daddy and tried to pull something by the handle that appeared to be loose but no more bullets came out”.

Green’s daughter said that “the round fat face man laughed at us Daddy and then they went away”. Repeatedly crying, she told him “mommy is dead daddy, mommy is dead, come home Daddy now”.

Green was out of the country as part of his job as a consultant for Bio-Conservation Ventures when his wife, Atty. Mia “was mercilessly and helplessly ambushed and murdered inside our vehicle and in the presence of horror of my terrified children and nanny”.

PRIOR THREAT

Green also narrated that on February 14, 2017 Blomqvist was threatened by Gonzaga thru a call from her cellular phone saying in an angry voice “buakon ko nag ulo ang imong Atty. Mga yawa kamong duha hapit nap ud ang imong

katapusan”.(I’m going to break the head of your lawyer. Both of you are devils. Your end will come soon Ma.)
Green recounted that Gonzaga and Benigian “have long been a topic of my personal conversations with my late wife, especially since I personally saw and witnessed Lloyd and the other respondents confront a team of policemen in front of our office . . .”.
Green was referring to an incident on August 19, 2016 when Atty. Mia requested for police assistance from the TCPS after Gonzaga together with Benigian and several armed goons allegedly tried to forcibly take possession of the disputed Toyota van parked a short distance from her office at Dampas District near the Barangay Hall. 

According to Atty. Mia’s narration of the incident as shown in court documents, she was surprised by the arrival of members of the Panglao Police followed by the TCPS and the Highway Patrol Group.

The swarm of police officers turned the area into a “war zone” but the three police units appeared clueless and helpless on what to do about the presence of Gonzaga and his alleged armed goons, according to Atty. Mia.

EVIDENT PREMEDITATION 

The affidavit of the nanny described their helplessness as she witnessed Gonzaga and Benigian drill four bullets on the left neck of Atty. Mia, one to the right neck, and three at the head while shielding with her body the three children who were seated in the backseat.

According to the nanny who has been with the Greens since 2013, Benigian shot her Ate Mia at the driver’s side while Gonzaga was firing at the right side even as the eldest daughter was shouting at the assailants to “stop”.

The nanny saw Benigian open the left front door and fired several shots at point blank range at the bleeding lawyer while Gonzaga left the scene of the crime after he failed to unlock the right front door with its side window mirror shattered.

A beaming Benigian pointed his handgun at them but failed to fire apparently running out of bullets or his gun jammed and left after he noticed onlookers approaching the car, according to the nanny.

Upon her instruction, Green’s eldest daughter climbed over to the front seat and took her mommy’s cell phone from her bag that she used to call the office to report the shooting of Atty. Mia.

The nanny recalled that Green’s eldest daughter tried to get out of the car and kept on shouting for help and cradled her mother crying “sorry mommy, I love you Mommy” while the twins were cowering in fear.

The nanny positively fingered Gonzaga and Benigian from several pictures and remembered their faces from newspaper reports and learned that Gonzaga was the client of her Ate Mia.

POSITIVE IDENTIFICATION

Another affidavit was executed by Blomqvist to bolster the case against Gonzaga and Benigian calling to mind text messages from Atty. Mia informing her that the “tax decs for the buildings already in your name as owner” and “we can now file the case”.

A case for Usurpation and Forgery was set to be filed by Atty. Mia on February 20, 2017 against Gonzaga on the strength of the tax declaration transfer under the name of Blomqvist involving the Alona Embrace Hotel.

Blomqvist claimed that Gonzaga “forcibly excluded her” from the hotel after she bought it from her niece Jovelyn Acebedo Forsberg while occupying the hotel with his armed goons and asserting ownership based on another set of documents.

The latest development of the land case raised the hackles of Gonzaga that apparently led to the murder of Atty. Mia.

A sworn statement from a lending collector was also attached to the murder complaints who was at the scene of the crime and was sitting right across Benigian before the shooting erupted.

The lending collector also told police investigators that he saw Gonzaga who approached the vehicle of Atty. Mia from a nearby waiting shed and started firing from the right front side of the stalled vehicle.

The lending collector positively identified the two suspects from a police gallery at 10 PM on February 15, 2016 after he was fetched by police officers whom he confided about his face to face encounter with the suspects a few minutes after the shooting.

Responders from the Tagbilaran City Rescue Unit rushed Green to the Holy Name University Medical Center where she was reported to have expired two hours later. But according to the police, Green was declared dead on arrival (DOA).
According to the Certificate of Death signed by Dr. Teomin Casano, of the City Health Office, Atty. Mia died from multiple gunshot wounds to the head and neck on both sides.

Stuart Green married Mia Mascariñas at the Assumption of our Lady Parish, Dauis, Bohol on June 26,2004 and are blessed with a 10 year old daughter and two-year- old twins – a boy and a girl. 

The criminal complaints against the four suspects were filed by Green together with elements of the Criminal and Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Police Chief Inspector (C/Insp.) Erwin Lacostales, Deputy Commander, Head of Task Force Green, Police Senior Inspector (S/Insp.) David Niluag, Police Investigation and Detection Management Branch (PIDM) and Senior Police Officer l (SPOl) Agosto Cesario Sumaylo, Tagbilaran City Police Station (TCPS) case investigator.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Bohol Chapter represented by outgoing President Atty. Teodoro Lagang, former IBP President Atty. Menedio Thaddeus Bernido and Atty. Antonio “Jun” Amora, Jr.  assisted the complainants in the filing of the complaint. (Chito M. Visarra and Willie Maestrado)