Police: No robbery, land dispute in Carcar shooting

CEBU, Philippines - Police ruled out two angles in the shooting to death of an octogenarian couple in Barangay Guadalupe, Carcar City.

Cebu Provincial Police Office Director Patrocinio Comendador, Jr., over GMA 7 Balitang Bisdak, said they dismissed robbery and land dispute as possible motives behind the murder of couple Renerio Neri, 83, and wife Dolores Neri, 82.

Robbery, Comendador said, is least possible because no substantial amount or stuff went missing from the victims’ house after they were killed by the still unidentified assailant.

Everything at the house that surrounded the bodies last Sunday was already in a mess, prompting police to believe that the couple could have been robbed. But a thorough investigation showed that no amount or valuables were noted missing.

Comendador added that copies of land titles were still intact at the victims’ house.

The elderly couple own parcels of land in the said city as well as in the town of Alcoy, which also prompted the police to suspect that the two figured in a dispute over land ownership. But police dismissed this possibility as they found the land titles at the victims’ house during crime investigation, Comendador said.

Right now, Comendador said, they are focusing on the remaining angle, which is revenge relating to Renerio’s previous faith healing profession.

The CPPO provincial director further said that someone could be mad at the couple for failing to revive  a sick person. The case could be likened to that of Naga City, where a couple who also worked as folk doctors were shot to death last March allegedly over unhealed patients.

Meanwhile, Comendador said he is ready to provide policemen to secure Joel Capablanca and his family in Barangay Pangdan, Naga City.

Capablanca fears for his life more as well as his father’s and siblings’ now that her mother was killed last Tuesday.

Joel and her mother were on their way to the Palace of Justice in Cebu City to attend the court hearing of an attempted murder case they filed against one Reynaldo Hernani when the assailants shot them. Joel luckily evaded the shots.

Joel suspects Hernani is behind the attack. — (FREEMAN)