SAN FRANCISCO, Agusan del Sur (MindaNews / 2 July)—The alleged mastermind behind the killing of a retired Army colonel who became a successful gold miner in Agusan del Sur was arrested by joint police operatives Monday afternoon in Bukidnon.
Retired Col. Samuel A. Afdal. Photo from his Facebook page
Maj. Ralph Jezen Perez, police chief of Bunawan town in Agusan del Sur, said Ryan Mark Baylon, business partner of the late Col. Samuel A. Afdal, was apprehended in one of three movable nipa huts in Barangay Talahiron, Kibawe in Bukidnon.
Baylon, the last of the three suspects implicated in Afdal’s killing on October 26, 2021, had been in hiding for 26 days since Perez received the arrest warrant from a Quezon City court.
Baylon was found in the company of female helpers and offered no resistance during the arrest, police said.
Perez noted that the two other suspects accused of conspiring to kill Afdal, Rosalino Degracia and Alemar Awado, are now in police custody.
Awado surrendered voluntarily to operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Regional Office 11 in Davao City, while Degracia was arrested in Bislig City on a separate murder charge.
Awado and Degracia were former members of the New People’s Army.
Health concern
The police chief, in a phone interview, said that Baylon complained of arrhythmia, an abnormal heart rhythm, upon arrival at the police station. He is scheduled for a medical check-up Tuesday, July 2.
When Baylon was apprehended, he was sporting a heavy beard, Perez said, unlike his previous appearance when he was clean-shaven.
Since his name cropped up as a suspect in the crime late last year, Baylon had been coy to media requests for interviews to get his side of the issue. He and his two other co-accused skipped clarificatory hearings on the case set by Provincial Prosecutor Dino Ceferino Paredes last December.
But Baylon was seen participating in the Mindanao leg of the 2024 BOSS Ironman Motorcycle Challenge and was part of one of two teams led by Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, who dropped by the town’s municipal hall on Jan. 28.
Afdal and Baylon were riding buddies of Davao City’s “On Any Sunday Riders Club,” which counts among its members former President Rodrigo Duterte and Dela Rosa.
“We are waiting for a commitment order from the judge of Regional Trial Court Branch 85 in Quezon City before we will escort him there,” Perez said.
Afdal, known as “Saga” among associates, was president of Philsaga Mining Corp., which extracted gold in a tenement in the municipality of Rosario in Agusan del Sur. He sold his interests in the company and started a new one, Rosario Manobo Mining Corp. (RMMC).
Afdal was driving along an uphill road when ambushed in Barangay Santa Cruz. Although hit, the former soldier managed to drive toward the RMMC base camp and sought help. He was rushed to a local hospital, where he later lapsed into a coma and died on Nov. 15, 2021.
The indictment against the three accused was based mainly on the confession of Jeffrey Mamerto, the alleged gunman.
Mamerto had pointed to Baylon, Afdal’s business associate and president of the firm JB Earthmovers Inc., as the mastermind of the kill plot, allegedly offering his former NPA colleagues Degracia and Awado P200,000 to do the hit job. Mamerto, in turn, was contracted for P50,000 to pull the trigger against Afdal.
Business partners
In the amended information, Baylon was tagged as a principal by inducement for offering the cash reward for the hit job and also as a principal by indispensable cooperation by giving Degracia, Awado, and Mamerto critical information so they could carry out the ambush. Degracia and Awado were tagged as co-principals by direct participation.
On Nov. 15 last year, during a pretrial hearing, Mamerto’s confession was presented before the court. In plea bargaining, he pleaded guilty to the lesser offense of homicide, earning a 10-year prison term.
In her complaint for murder against Baylon, Afdal’s widow Evelyn said that the accused allegedly defrauded her family of their ownership stake in JB Earthmovers, which was “obliterated” from company records after her husband’s death.
She claimed her husband had invested P60 million in JB Earthmovers and had a 50% stake, while his son had 1%. An estafa case is pending before the Davao City prosecutor’s office.
Before his death, Afdal, according to Evelyn’s complaint, had JB Earthmovers audited to determine the reason for its business losses. Evelyn also noted the accounts of witnesses that several days after her husband’s death, Baylon attempted to take control of RMMC.
This reporter had tried to contact known numbers of Baylon and his firm, JB Earthmovers, but he has yet to respond. (Chris V. Panganiban / MindaNews)