PNP seeks indictment for Boracay murder suspects

BORACAY, Aklan AFP) – Police asked prosecutors yesterday to indict a German national and four Filipinos for the gruesome murders of three foreigners and a Filipino maid earlier this month.

Provincial prosecutor Lourdes Mayor told Agence France Presse police have sufficient grounds to charge Uwe Friesl, Chito Catalogo and three other as yet unnamed Filipinos for the crime which shocked the central resort island of Boracay and the Hong Kong art world.

Friesl and the four Filipinos are being linked to the killings of Swiss-born, Hong Kong gallery owner Manfred Schoeni, German property developer and villa owner Anton Faustenhauser, Hong Kong-based British architect John Cowperthwaite and a Filipina maid.

All were found stabbed to death on May 2 in Faustenhauser’s luxurious villa La Dolce Vita on a headland overlooking Boracay.

"The deputy regional chief of the 6th RCIDU (regional criminal investigation detection unit) Marlon Tayaba filed a case against Uwe Friesl, Chito Catalogo and so far three unnamed Filipinos this afternoon at the provincial prosecutors office for robbery and multiple homicide," Mayor said.

She said all five were still free but their movements were being monitored by police "until such time a warrant of arrest is issued."

Mayor said her office would conduct a preliminary investigation and ask the two named respondents to file counter-affidavits.

If she finds probable cause, Mayor said she would file a case in court.

Robbery with homicide is punishable by death, she said.

Police Chief Superintendent Odilardo Magallanes said the principal suspect Friesl was employed by Faustenhauser as a caretaker at the villa.

"He was the first one to have found the bodies. But investigators found footprints that matched his in the lavatory where the murder weapon was found," Magallanes told AFP. "The crime laboratory matched the prints."

Magallanes said Friesl has been apparently living in Boracay for some time and witnesses say they saw him near the villa at the time of the murders.

Famed for its white sands and idyllic lifestyle, Boracay is a top tourist draw in the Philippines. It is considered relatively safe it is some distance from the Muslim and Communist rebellions further south.

The killings shocked the nation and raised fears the tourism industry could be affected. — With Jaime Laude