Probe on murdered couple continues as P10M cash, jewelry reported missing

The bodies of the “missing” Sanchez couple were found in their Mitsubishi Strada pick-up in Barangay Tananas in San Fernando town at past 7 p.m. on Friday, June 18. | CDN Digital file photo (Paul Lauro)

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Police are considering personal matters linked to business and robbery as the possible motives in the killing of a couple, who were found dead on June 18 inside their Mitsubishi Strada in San Fernando town in southern Cebu.

This after police found out that the Sanchez couple — businessman Gavino, 49, and public school teacher Arlene, 47 —had reportedly an estimated P5 million cash and pieces of jewelry worth another P5 million with them when they went missing.

This was according to the daughter of the victims, said Police Lieutenant Zosimo Ravanes, chief of the Anti-Kidnapping Group in Central Visayas (AKG-7).

The cash and jewelry were missing when the bodies of the Sanchez couple were found in Barangay Tananas of the southern town on June 18.

However, Police Colonel Engelbert Soriano, Cebu Police Provincial Office (CPPO) director, said they were focusing more on the personal matters linked to business angle in the motive of the killing of the couple.

“Initially, ang tinitingnan namin na profile is businessman.  Tinitingnan namin ulit kung ano yung activities for the past few days nitong Gavino,” said Soriano, who also described the couple as not being engaged in any illegal activities.

(Initially, we are looking into the profile of the businessman, We are checking his activities in the past few days.)

Soriano said they were also not discounting the possibility that the couple were abducted although they (police) did not receive reports of perpetrators asking for ransom money from the family.

“Pero kasama sa radar yung abduction pero sa ngayon, hindi masyadong (kinoconsider),” Soriano said.

(But abduction is in our radar. However, this is not so much (considered as a motive)).

Family sought AKG-7’s help

Ravanes, for his part, said that the daughter and other family members sought their help on June 17 for a possible kidnap for ransom incident or a day after her parents were last seen.

He said that the daughter claimed that her parents returned home in Barangay Tubod, Minglanilla town in southern Cebu on June 16 emptied the cash in the vault at the house and also brought with them pieces of jewelry.

The daughter claimed that the money inside the vault was estimated to be P5 million while the pieces of jewelry were estimated to be at least P5 million too.

Ravanes, however, said that they were verifying the daughter’s statement.

Aside from that, the daughter claimed that her parents also had several ATM cards with them because they were also engaged in the lending business.

The Sanchez couple were also engaged in the water refilling and food catering business.

Sigun sa anak, estimate niya mga 5 million ang cash kay nagpalending man gud ni sila, unya naa sad silay food catering services, beauty parlors ug water refilling. Naa gyud silay cash always para sa lending nila. Naay mga ATM card nga dala ang iyang mama ug papa kada adlaw,” he added.

(According to the daughter, she estimated the cash to be at least P5 million because her parents were into the lending business, food catering services, beauty parlors and water refilling business. They always carry cash because of their lending business. Her mama and papa always have ATM cards with them everyday.)

With this, Ravanes advised the family to request the banks to freeze all the accounts of the victims.

P50K withdrawn

It was then that the family found out that someone had withdrawn P50,000 from one of the couple’s accounts.

With this, Ravanes advised the family to request copies of the closed circuit television camera of all the banks with reported withdrawals of the couple’s accounts for the last two days to find out the possible identities of those who withdrew the money.

He said that the family believed that those, who withdrew the money were those who killed the Sanchez couple.

As of now, the Minglanilla Police and the San Fernando police are doing a parallel investigation in the killing of the Sanchez couple.

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