ANGELES CITY – A columnist of a local newspaper wanted for the murder of his ex-wife and her lover was finally collared by the police in Mindanao over the weekend.
Bernie Chavit, who wrote a column in the Central Luzon Times and reportedly a grandson of lawyer Homobono Adaza, was nabbed in the municipality of Buenavista, Agusan del Norte at 5 p.m. on Sunday by members of the Caraga Regional Intelligence Division (RID).
Chavit is facing charges for the murder of his wife Girlie David, 42, and her lover Ernesto “Takusa” Briones, 52, at their conjugal house in Timog Park Subdivision here last April, 2012. David was seven months pregnant at the time of her death. They both died from gunshot wounds in the head.
Inspector Arvin E. Hosmillo of the Caraga RID said Chavit did not resist arrest when they served him the warrant in Barangay Tres where he was found.
Hosmillo, a Kapampangan from Barangay Pandan here, said after receiving a tip that Chavit might have fled to the Caraga region (Region 13), he immediately conducted a research on the case through the internet.
Hosmillo said he read news articles of the circumstances surrounding the case and watch news clippings of the case through ABS-CBN Pampanga and Umagang Kay Ganda.
He said he also got necessary information from Chavit’s facebook account. The Caraga RID then conducted intelligence gathering and surveillance operations that led to Chavit’s arrest.
Hosmillo said Chavit is still in Caraga while the RID is coordinating with the Angeles City Police Office for his transfer by plane here.
It can be recalled that Chavit was separated from his wife for about a year when the murders occurred. Police said Briones was shot first while asleep. This woke up David who gave a brief struggle but she was also shot.
The killer allegedly used a gun with a silencer.
The killing happened at Timog Park in Barangay Pampang where Chavit and David used to live together with their two children, now aged six and three, before they
separated about a year ago, with Chavit moving out to stay with relatives elsewhere.
A security guard in the compound told police Chavit arrived on board a tricycle at around 5:20 a.m. on the day of the murders and left using David’s motorcycle at around 6 a.m. The motorcycle was later found abandoned in a sand quarrying area in Porac.
After sending surrender feelers through his media colleagues, Chavit just vanished, until last Sunday when the law caught up with him in Agusan del Norte.
