Town health exec hunted for wife’s slay

Cagayan de Oro City — Authorities have intensified the manhunt for a municipal health officer who was linked to the slaying of his doctor-wife here last week.

City police chief Honorio Cervantes identified the suspect as Dr. Farouk Marohombsar, municipal health officer of Talisayan, Misamis Oriental.

The police said Farouk’s wife, Dr. Maria Cheryl Ilogon Marohombsar, was found dead in the master’s bedroom of their house in Barangay Macasandig last June 11, and autopsy revealed that she was beaten up before she was strangled.

Medico-legal findings by the National Bureau of Investigation showed that she suffered injuries through the beatings on the chest, legs and abdomen.

Hector Ilogon, the victim’s brother, said their family believes that there was foul play in her death.

Their other relatives claimed that the victim was a battered wife and would have wanted out of the marriage. The couple has an adult son, Alex.

But in text messages to his relatives, Marohombsar denied having any hand in his wife’s death.

"I am innocent in the eyes of Allah," he said.

He, however, added: "She had committed a very grievous sin so that she deserved such (a) punishment."

The victim was buried here last Sunday.