NBI probes slay of actress’ ma

MANILA, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has started its parallel probe on the killing of the mother of actress Cherry Pie Picache last week. 

Picache went to the NBI headquarters before noon yesterday to personally seek the bureau’s help in the identification and arrest of the persons who killed her mother in their house in Quezon City at the height of Tropical Storm Mario. 

She executed a sworn statement, which the NBI Death Investigation Unit (DIU) will use as a formal complaint in the investigation. 

“Please keep on praying justice will be served,” the actress told reporters in an ambush interview. She also thanked friends and colleagues in the showbiz industry for supporting her crusade for justice for her mother, Zenaida Sison. 

In the afternoon, NBI agents proceeded to the house where Sison, 75, was stabbed to death.   

NBI-DIU chief Joel Tovera said they have taken statements of several possible witnesses, including a couple who were initially invited by police for questioning but eventually released.

“We hope their statements could help shed light on the case,” he said in a separate interview.

The NBI official did not reveal more details so as not to jeopardize the probe, but hinted that they would focus on how the killers got into the victim’s house and how they fled from the scene. 

He said a copy of the closed-circuit television footage of the area from Barangay Paligsahan and a neighborhood inspection would be useful for this purpose. 

Sison was found dead on the second floor of her house in Quezon City last Sept. 19. It was learned that Sison lived alone and only three cleaning ladies who work in shifts as well as two gardeners had access to the house.   

QCPD chief meets with Picache

Meanwhile, Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director Chief Superintendent Richard Albano met with Picache yesterday to update her on the progress of the case.

“I told her about our lead and the suspects we are pursuing,” Albano said in an interview after the meeting.

Albano said he asked Picache not to divulge sensitive details to the public.

Chief Inspector Rodel Marcelo, head of the QCPD’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, said he also briefed the actress on details of the case. 

As this happened, Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista, himself a former actor, ordered Albano to direct his men to conduct a round-the-clock investigation to arrest the ones behind Sison’s killing.

“I mourned with the family of my fellow artist, Cherry Pie, for the loss of her mother in a gruesome murder like this. Justice should be served. Perpetrators of this heinous crime should be put in jail the soonest possible time,” Bautista, who was in the United States for an official engagement, said.