Son a suspect in Aussie killings

The remaining member of a Filipino family murdered in Australia last July 10 is a suspect in the killings, Justice Secretary Hernando Perez disclosed yesterday.

Quoting an initial investigation report by the National Bureau of Investigation, Perez confirmed over radio station dzRH reports that police in Sydney are considering Sef Gonzales as a suspect in the killing of his father Teodoro, a 46-year-old lawyer; mother Mary Josephine Loiva, 43, and his 18-year-old sister Clodine.

"This may be a shocking and terrifying revelation. The public may be shocked. I can’t reveal it because the report hasn’t been declared official yet. But yes, it’s true that he (Sef Gonzales) is one of the suspects," Perez told broadcaster Joe Taruc.

The justice chief admitted that he was hesitant in mentioning the name of the 20-year-old law student as a suspect in the killing of his parents and sister. The elder Gonzales was a well-known immigration lawyer in Australia.

Perez was quoting an NBI report that cited Sydney police sources as saying that Sef Gonzales could have had a motive in the massacre because he was a battered child. It said Sef was beaten up by both his parents.

NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco had sent NBI regional director for the Cordilleras Rickson Chiong to coordinate with the Australian police in the investigation of the massacre, which had been described in Australian newspapers as "exceptionally violent."

In a letter to President Arroyo a few days after the carnage, Australian Ambassador John Buckley said the New South Wales police would be closely coordinating with Chiong in the investigation.

Initial reports from the Sydney police indicated that a racist hate message written in the slain lawyer’s blood was found in the Gonzales residence.

Police have declined to reveal the wording of the racist message left in the bedroom of the family’s two-story home in the middle-class suburb of North Ryde in Sydney.

The victims’ bodies were reported to have been discovered by Sef Gonzales himself when he came home from a night out with friends.

Sef was treated in a local hospital for shock after alerting the police about the murders.