Barias puts up reward for suspects in OFW's rob-slay

National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Geary Barias has put up a P100,000 reward for the arrest of the suspects in the murder of a female overseas Filipino worker (OFW) whose body was discovered inside a parked car in Sta. Mesa, Manila last Tuesday.

“The money will come from the NCRPO fund,” Barias told The STAR in a phone interview. He said the money will be given to anyone who can provide information leading to the identity and arrest of the suspects.

This developed even as police continue to face a blank wall in the investigation of the case. “There are no witnesses. But I will try to get more information from the victim’s family after her wake,” said Chief Inspector Dominador Arevalo Jr. who heads the homicide section of the Manila Police District.   

Police said the body of Froilina Fang, 43, a former OFW and a single parent, was discovered in an abandoned Toyota Revo (XCY-516) in Sta. Mesa Tuesday night. According to the victim’s siblings, their sister’s diamond ring and ¥90,000 were missing.

Arevalo said the victim left Lourdes Hospital, where her mother is confined, to change her ¥90,000 to pesos at a money changer in Kalentong, Mandaluyong City. Before leaving, she reportedly handed P4,000 to a male friend to give to her brother Michael. That was the last time the victim was seen alive, Arevalo said.

Police are looking at robbery as the prime motive for the killing. “The victim could had been waylaid by the suspect after exchanging her yen, then instructed her to drive around before killing her. We learned that the place where the car was found was not the usual route taken by the victim in going from the money changer to the hospital,” Arevalo said.