Beauty queen and BF’s slay: 5 persons of interest under custody

Tarlac police officers and Bureau of Fire Protection officials inspected on June 29 the vehicle of missing beauty pageant candidate Geneva Lopez and her Israeli boyfriend Yitshak Cohen. (Photo courtesy of the Capas municipal police.)

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) has said that five of seven persons of interest in the abduction and killing of beauty pageant candidate Geneva Lopez and her Israeli boyfriend Yitshak Cohen are under police custody.

PNP Chief, Gen. Rommel Marbil, said in a Radyo 630 interview on Monday that “Lima na po yung nasa custody natin, tatlo arrested for different cases, dalawa po ay surrendered and gave their testimonies and dalawa lang po yung at large.”

(Five of them are under police custody, three were arrested for different cases, two surrendered and gave their testimonies, and only two are at large.)

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Marbil added that the PNP would arrest the two at large after gathering enough evidence and filing the cases.

“Hindi ko pa masabi identities dahil hindi pa na-fi-file ang case but afterwards we can give the whole report,” Marbil said.

(I couldn’t reveal their identities yet because the case has not been filed, but we can give the whole report afterward.)

The PNP earlier said its Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and Tarlac police recovered the remains of Lopez and Cohen in a quarry site in Barangay Sta. Lucia in Capas, Tarlac, two weeks after they disappeared on June 21.

Previous reports also revealed that two of the seven persons of interest were former police officers.

One of them was identified as Michael Angelo Guiang.

He was the supposed middleman Lopez and Cohen met in Capas last June 21 for the 20.5-hectare agricultural land the couple was allegedly planning to purchase.

Meanwhile, another former police officer, identified as Rommel Abuza, was arrested in a separate operation on July 6.

Both are facing charges of violation of the firearms regulation law and possession of an explosive under Republic Act No. 9516.

Guiang and Abuza were assigned to Angeles City police at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. They were dismissed from service due to absence without leave.