Ople’s son-in-law found murdered

LEGAZPI CITY — A son-in-law of Sen. Blas Ople was found dead with gunshot wounds in the head and back inside a room of the Magayon Hotel here Wednesday afternoon, police said.

Superintendent Romeo Mapalo, city police chief, said the body of Arthur Meliton San Jose, husband of Ople’s daughter Dalisay, was found inside the comfort room of Room 413 of the hotel.

Mapalo said San Jose, a native of San Jose, Camarines Sur, checked in at the hotel Tuesday afternoon under the name of Jules Martinez. Probers unmasked his real identity after recovering his wallet containing an ATM card, calling cards and P1,500 in cash. His cell phone was missing.

Mapalo said it appears that San Jose fought off his assailant because things were scattered inside his hotel room and the toilet bowl was broken.

Autopsy showed that besides being shot, San Jose’s face was also smashed and his left hand was tied with an electric wire, Mapalo said.

Probers were verifying a report that a front desk officer of the hotel overheard San Jose talking to someone on his cell phone, even giving his room number, shortly after he checked in at 5:25 p.m. Tuesday.

San Jose had ran for mayor in his hometown but lost.

There was no immediate reaction from Sen. Ople. But his colleague, Sen. Teresa Aquino-Oreta, condemned the killing and urged the police to immediately solve it.

"We strongly condemn this crime that was committed, ironically, inside an establishment where one is expected to feel safe," she said in a statement.

Oreta called on the Arroyo administration to focus on the "deteriorating" peace and order situation, citing San Jose’s murder as well as the theft of Sen. John Osmeña’s Toyota Land Cruiser at the parking lot of a Makati City hotel.