12 tracker teams sent to hunt down Ruby Rose slay suspects

MANILA, Philippines - A total of 12 tracker teams were dispatched to various areas of Metro Manila and neighboring provinces to arrest businessman Lope Jimenez and other suspects in the killing of Ruby Rose Barrameda-Jimenez.

Six of the tracker teams are from the National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO). The Northern Police District (NPD) sent two while the remaining police districts sent one each.

NCRPO chief Director Roberto Rosales said the tracker teams visited places Lope frequently visited but went home empty-handed. He said he received reports that Jimenez’s co-accused are armed and dangerous.

“My instructions to my men is shoot back once they are fired upon during the course of effecting the arrest warrant against them,” Rosales told The STAR.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed murder charges against Lope and several others tagged in Ruby Rose’s death before a Malabon regional trial court (RTC) last Aug. 24. Judge Hector Almeyda issued an arrest warrant against the accused last Friday, the same day Lope’s older brother, Manuel Jimenez Jr., surrendered to police in Angono, Rizal.

The Jimenezes, Eric Fernandez, Spyke Discalzo, and Roberto Ponce denied participating in the murder but Manuel Montero, who is also included in the charge sheet, confessed to helping kill Ruby Rose and testified for the Barrameda family.

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has issued a hold departure order against all the suspects, and Rosales strongly believed that Lope and the other accused are still in the country.

The Jimenezes expressed doubts that the body of a woman fished out of the seawaters of Navotas last June 11, under Montero’s guidance, was that of Ruby Rose, who they claim is still alive.

Ruby Rose was on her way to visit her two children at her husband’s house in Las Piñas City when she disappeared last March 14, 2007. – Non Alquitran