Lotto slay suspects denied bail

Because of "strong evidence," Antipolo City Assistant Prosecutor Mario Luna has denied bail to eight of the 10 suspects in the killing of a lottery winner’s husband in Antipolo City last Oct. 28.

Antipolo City police filed charges of robbery with homicide, car theft and illegal possession of firearms against the 10 suspects last Friday. Police are still looking for two other suspects, known only as Bert and Andy.

Police had to fetch Luna at his home to file the charges after they found his office empty on Friday, a holiday, city police chief Senior Superintendent Jose Dayco said. They were told to come back Monday.

Dayco earlier complained that they might be forced to release the suspects for want of a prosecutor because the law required them to file the charges within a 36-hour period from the time the arrests were made.

Luna apologized to Dayco for the delay. He said their office was undermanned and they have only four prosecutors handling a large city when they should have 12 as required by a Department of Justice guideline.

The suspects are accused of killing Arturo Eufemia, 58, on Oct. 28 just days after his wife won P19.6 million in the lottery of the state-run Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

An undetermined amount of money was stolen as well as the victim’s newly bought Toyota Grandia van.

Police suspicion initially fell on the victim’s wife, Leticia, 52, because she visited a relative at Camp Crame in Quezon City along with her daughter the day before her husband was killed.

It was suspected that she masterminded the killing to keep their winnings to herself.

As it turned out, Dayco said, the wife left because she got angry about her husband’s nightly drinking sprees which began after she won the Oct. 12 draw.

Hours after the questioning on Wednesday, arrests were made when a tipster led police to the victim’s van, found parked at a suspect’s house. All except two of the suspects were arrested the following day in a series of operations.

Suspected mastermind Rolando Velasco said they learned about the Eufemia’s lottery winnings through the victim’s son, Renan.

He said Renan and one of the two suspects at large,known only as Andy, were lovers. "When Renan once gave Andy a large amount of cash we began to wonder where he got it," he said.

Velasco said they learned about the victim’s winnings when Renan invited him, Andy and another suspect, Francisco Aregue, to his father’s birthday party on Oct. 26, two days before the victim was killed.

It was there that Velasco and Aregue hatched the plot. Two days later, the suspects barged into the victim’s house and shot him dead around 1 a.m. after another nightly drinking spree at the house.

The suspects said they only intended to rob the Eufemias but they were forced to gun down the victim when he opened fire on them. They claimed they did not know that the victim had a gun.