Tetangco task force: Killers known to victims

ANGELES CITY , Philippines  – Some or all three victims, including a brother of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor, had known their attackers on the night they were murdered here on June 2.

This was the contention of Senior Superintendent Wendy Rosario, chairman of the police’s Tetangco-Yap task force which was formed to solve the murders of Rene Tetangco Jr., brother of BSP Governor Amando Tetangco, and his companions businessman Florencio Yap and aide Dennis Guinto.

Rosario cited to The Star investigations narrowing the time of the crime to one and a half hours, or from 7:30 to 9 p.m. on June 2.

He said that contrary to earlier police reports, Yap had called up King’s Poker and Sports Club here at 7:30 p.m. on that day, and not at 7 p.m., to arrange for dinner for three as they were to play poker there.

Rosario also cited a witness as saying that the abandoned Fortuner van which was later found to contain the bodies of the three was observed at a vacant lot along Fields Avenue here as early as 9 p.m. or only one and a half hours later.

He also said that his task force is set to invite three persons with whom Tetangco and Yap were supposed to play poker with at King’s. He identified them as outgoing Bacolor Mayor Buddy Dungca, former provincial board member John Santos and provincial board member Cris Garbo.

During his call to King’s management, Yap said they were already heading to the poker venue and that they were near a gas station located some two kilometers from their destination. They never made it to King’s, however.     

“It was probable the culprits were known to some or all three victims, since I don’t think they could have stopped the van they were riding if those who had flagged them down were strangers,” Rosario said.

Dungca, who claimed Yap had been a long-time friend, also theorized that the culprits were known to the victims. He said he went home after Yap’s party failed to show up.

The murders were reported to the police at about 8 a.m. on June 3 after a security guard at a nearby restaurant found inside, the bloodied bodies of the victims.

They had M-16 bullet wounds in the chest and head, although autopsy revealed that only Yap sustained marks of torture on his face and knees, along with a broken arm. This prompted probers to theorize Yap was the actual target of the culprits and that Tetangco and Guinto were killed as mere “collateral consequences” in the crime. – With Ric Sapnu