CEBU CITY, Philippines — Ten individuals including the wife, father-in-law and mother-in-law of a 31-year-old cook, who was found dead in a barangay in Tabogon town in northern Cebu last July 2020, are accused of killing the latter.
This after the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7), after investigating the killing for nearly a year, filed on June 4, 2021, a murder case against the 10 individuals at the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.
Lawyer Renan Oliva, NBI-7 director, said in a press briefing on June 7 at the NBI-7 office in Cebu City that they were just waiting for the arrest warrants to be issued by the Cebu Prosecutor before they would move to arrest the 10 individuals.
According to the investigation, which was conducted by NBI-7 agent Aga Gierran, that the witness an 8-year-old boy claimed that the victim was allegedly hit 13 times in the body with a piece of wood after his hands were allegedly tied.
The witness said that the 10 accused also allegedly wrapped the face of the victim with masking tape and they also allegedly injected something into the victim.
Gierran said that the victim, however, allegedly died of strangulation.
This was supported by the photos taken by the embalmer and the findings of Dr. Rene Cam, NBI medico-legal officer.
“The ligature marks from the victim’s neck were horizontally oriented and probably caused by strangulation,” said Cam.
The cook’s body was found three days later about 20 to 30 meters away from his in-laws house.
The victim at first was declared by a doctor at the town as having died of a heart attack.
However, the parents of the cook sought the help of the NBI after they found the mysterious circumstances that surrounded the death of their son.
Earlier, the wife of the cook allegedly also sought the help of the NBI to autopsy her husband’s body because she claimed that she was not convinced that her husband died of a heart attack.
But eventually, during the investigation, Gierran said that it turned out that the wife was allegedly involved in the killing of her husband.
He said a day before the victim went missing, neighbors heard people arguing ang then a man calling for help and a woman shouting “that is enough.”
Gierran said the victim was last seen alive on July 17, 2020, at 5 p.m. near the elementary school of the barangay, and three days later on July 20, 2020, his body, which was already in a state of decomposition.
Gierran said that the victim’s wife’s parents were not in good terms with the victim because they allegedly did not like the victim as a husband for their daughter.
But the victim and his wife got married in 2013, had two children and lived in Manila where the victim worked as a cook of a restaurant.
In June 2020, the couple moved to Tabogon.
Gierran said that during that time the couple’s relationship were not so good.
In July, 2020, the victim was found dead a few meters from his in laws house.
Meanwhile, the minor witness has been turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development for proper interventions.
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