Bloody clothes, witnesses link in-laws to woman’s slay

MANILA, Philippines - Two men are facing charges after bloody clothes and two witnesses linked them to the killing of a woman in Barangay Salvacion, Quezon City Wednesday morning, officials said yesterday.

Cenen Urbano and his son-in-law, Von Bernardo, were charged with robbery with homicide before the city prosecutor’s office last night. Urbano has been arrested but Bernardo remains at large, police said.

They are reportedly two of the four men who entered the house of their in-law, Maria Gatmaitan, and slashed her throat, Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director Senior Superintendent Richard Albano said.

The men also repeatedly hit Gatmaitan’s mother, Noemi Pineda, on the head, Albano said.

Two boys, parking attendants at the Sto. Domingo Church, said they were promised P5 by Urbano, 72, if they looked after his Mitsubishi Adventure, which he left in the church courtyard.

“Guard it or I’ll kill you,” one of the boys claimed Urbano told them. The boy said Urbano left in a hurry and boarded a jeepney after seeing a police car.

“He did not give us the P5,” the boy said.

Another witness said Urbano’s Adventure was parked outside Gatmaitan’s house at the time of the killing, which was around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, QCPD deputy director for administration Senior Superintendent Joel Pagdilao.

When investigators checked the license plate number of the Adventure, it was traced to Urbano, Pagdilao said. The vehicle was found abandoned at the church after the killing.

Evidence

As a photo of Urbano was shown to the church parking attendants, they identified him as the same one they saw at the church courtyard, according to Albano.

He said they recovered from vehicle bloodstained clothes belonging to Bernardo. QCPD  Station 1 commander Superintendent Osmundo de Guzman said Gatmaitan’s helper identified the clothes as those worn by Bernardo at the time of the killing.

Senior Superintendent Procopio Lipana, QCPD’s chief of directorial staff, cited the “corroboration” of different witnesses against the suspects and the recovered evidence.

Inspector Elmer Monsalve, head of the QCPD’s Homicide Investigation Section, said there was also a camera memory card found inside the Adventure that contained photos of Bernardo.

Moneylender

Metro Manila police chief Director Leonardo Espina said they were ruling out robbery in the killing.

“The suspects were known to the victim,” Espina said, commending the QCPD for the speedy resolution of the case. Urbano was placed under arrest within four hours after killing.

Pagdilao said Urbano’s wife Dolores is a Gatmaitan, a relative of the slain woman’s husband.

Monsalve said Gatmaitan’s husband, Isagani, has surfaced and said his wife may have been killed over her moneylending business. Albano said the suspects were let into the house as they had been visitors there before.

Monsalve said Bernardo’s wife had reportedly issued checks to the slain woman but wanted them back. This was what the two men were searching for when they went into the house, he added. Urbano, who denied involvement in the killing, reportedly stayed inside the car.