Childhood chums planned to kill, torch victims
Seven people allegedly hatched a plan to rob and kill the members of a household in
The Quezon City Police District-Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (QCPD-CIDU), using what they said was “old-fashioned police sleuthing,” recently arrested four men who were all identified by the lone survivor in the June 10 massacre, Dr. Victor Geronimo Jiao.
QCPD director Senior Superintendent Magtanggol Gatdula said the case can now be considered solved even if three other suspects remain at large.
Superintendent Franklin Moises Mabanag, chief of the QCPD-CIDU, identified the arrested suspects as Miguel “Iggy” Estepa, 42; Jeoffrey Cerilo, 45; Ramon David, 47; and Judy “Toto” Cajontoy, 33.
The three other suspects who are still at large were identified only as Leo, Lani and Boy Tigas.
“The plan to stage the heist was hatched during a drinking session among the suspects about three days before June 10… Initially they intended to just rob the household of belongings but since some of them were known to the victims, they decided to kill the members of the household,” Mabanag told The STAR in an interview.
The arrest of the four suspects was done through separate operations by QCPD-CIDU operatives led by Superintendent Antonio Yarra and Inspector Roberto Razon last Tuesday and Wednesday.
Yarra said the suspects are “childhood buddies who grew up in that slum community near
Mabanag said Estepa, Cerilo and Boy Tigas are members of Bahala Na Gang. He added that Cerilo had been jailed in the past for involvement in robbery-snatching.
Mabanag said one of those “recruited,” who was present during that fateful drinking session backed out and became a police informant. This led to Estepa’s arrest in Tanay, Rizal. He named the other suspects, who are all residents of
Pieces of evidence recovered from the suspects strengthened the case against them, Mabanag said.
The police matched a roll of packing tape found in the house to that used to gag and hogtie the victims. Cerilo, who used to work in a factory that manufactures such tapes, apparently brought the roll.
Mabanag said the suspects took “souvenirs” from the house that were later found in their possession, such as six bread knives and three US coins that Jiao identified as his granddaughter’s Nina’s “toys.”
The suspects looped a length of rope around Nina’s neck, hogtied and repeatedly stabbed Jiao’s wife, Felicitas, and housemaids Marie, Gloria and Lilian before they set the house on fire.
The suspects also repeatedly stabbed Jiao but the retired physician survived the attack.
Aside from Jiao, village guard Vicente Datul also identified the four arrested suspects as those who entered the subdivision’s gate in a taxicab at around
Datul said the men had been coming in and out of the village working for some of the houses there.
According to Estepa, he and David acted as lookouts while Cerilo, Cajontoy, Lani and Boy Tigas went in. Cerilo was said to be the boyfriend of Lani, who in turn was a friend of one of the slain housemaids.
Estepa said Lani was the first to enter the house and later let the other suspects in. Boy Tigas was said to be the one who carried a gallon of gasoline used to set the house on fire. According to Mabanag, Jiao identified Cajontoy as the one who hogtied him.
Estepa said when he heard the victims plead for their lives, he urged the others to stop stabbing them. He added that when they were already in another taxi, the other suspects punched him, gave him P100 and ordered him to get off the vehicle and go home.
As for Leo, Mabanag said a maid in one of the houses near the Jiao residence recalled him being in the house while the crime was being committed.
Gatdula said Metro Manila police chief Director Geary Barias and Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. “commended Colonel Mabanag and his men for the solution of this case.”
Barias appealed to the public to help provide the police information on the location of the three remaining suspects.
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