NBI focusing on property spat in Nida slay

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is focusing on reported quarrels over property and the "Strunk-Medel partnership" to identify the killer of actress Nida Blanca.

NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco said the property angle and the alleged partnership will continue to be investigated even after confessed killer Philip Medel Jr. has recanted.

"For now, the most important angle is property," he said. "And we are still working on the Medel-Strunk partnership because we have not dropped them as suspects."

Meanwhile, the wife and mother of Michael Martinez, who had allegedly recruited Medel for Rod Lauren Strunk, Blanca’s husband, has asked Quezon City Judge Percival Lopez to order Philippine National Police chief Director General Leandro Mendoza and members of Task Force Marsha to bring Martinez before the court.

Martinez’s wife Maria Estelita and mother Teresita filed the petition for a writ of habeas corpus before Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 78.

In their petition, Maria Estelita and Teresita said the police no longer have any reason to detain Martinez because Medel had already recanted his earlier affidavit linking Martinez to the murder of Blanca, Dorothy Jones in real life.

"We do not know of any valid reason for Michael’s arrest, who is being deprived of his liberty against his will," read part of the petition.

Martinez was reportedly forcibly taken by armed men at about 7:30 a.m. last Nov. 19 while walking along Magnolia street in Sun Valley Subdivision, Parañaque City.

Wycoco has ordered 13 investigators from Nueva Ecija and Batangas to come to Manila to join the Nida Blanca murder case.

Katherine Jones Torres, Blanca’s only daughter, has met with Wycoco and turned over to him important documents on her mother’s properties.

Wycoco said the documents "might help us determine the motives in the killing" of Blanca who was found dead with multiple stab wounds inside her car on the sixth floor parking lot of the Atlanta Centre along Annapolis street in Greenhills, San Juan last Nov. 7.

Wycoco said statements of Torres, who is willing to be interviewed, are very important for the NBI to get an insight into the "relationships within the Blanca household" and the status of the slain actress’ properties.

Ricardo Diaz, NBI spokesman for the Nida Blanca case, said the NBI will continue to conduct tests on Medel who had earlier accused police investigators of torturing him to admit to killing Blanca and to implicate Strunk.

"Unless we know Medel’s sanity, it’s better that we wait for the findings of neuro-psychiatric test," he said.

However, Dr. Romel Papa, head of the NBI Neuro-Psychiatric Division, told reporters yesterday they would need at least five more working days to draw up a profile of Medel.

"It is the agreement of all psychiatrists in the investigation to request for additional days to conduct the examination," he said.

Dr. Cynthia Alcuaz, chief NBI psychiatrist, said Medel completed yesterday his neuro-psychiatric test, and for "collateral data" they interviewed three of his family members in the afternoon. – Cecille Suerte Felipe, Nikko Dizon, Matthew Estabillo