Bohol mayor thrown into Cebu sea?

MANILA, Philippines - Police scoured the sea off Caubian Island in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu yesterday afternoon searching for the body of Mayor Gisela Boniel of Bien Unido town in Bohol, who has been reported missing for nearly 48 hours.

“We are checking the waters off Punta Engaño (across Olango) because we received reports that she was thrown there,” said Senior Supt. Jonathan Cabal, chief of the police Regional Intelligence Division of Region 7.

Boniel’s best friend Angela Leyson told the police she last saw the victim on Wednesday in a room at the Bien Unido Dive Camp in Bohol where they were taken by their captors.

Boniel, Leyson and Leyson’s 17-year-old son were supposed to attend a court hearing on Tuesday afternoon in Tubigon, 79 kilometers from Bien Unido, when the suspects accosted them and forced them into a van and brought them to the resort.

The men reportedly told them that they would spend the night there.

However, at dawn of Wednesday, one of the suspects came into their room and covered Leyson’s mouth with duct tape.

Leyson said someone then applied electric shock to her neck, rendering her unconscious.

But before totally losing consciousness, she reportedly heard the mayor saying: “In-in (her husband Niño’s nickname), ayaw hilabti si Lala (Angela) kay naa ang iyang anak sa pikas room (don’t involve Lala here because her son is in the next room).”

Leyson said she then passed out. She woke up inside a moving van heading to Tubigon.  

Before the suspects left her and her son, they allegedly threatened to kill them if they reported the incident to the police.

From Tubigon, she boarded a vessel to Lapu-Lapu City, where she sought police help.

Cabal said Leyson’s statements led to the arrest of the victim’s husband, Bohol board member Niño Boniel, along with his driver Randel Lucas and Niño’s cousin Kevin Boniel yesterday morning.

The police said Kevin was the one who shot and killed the mayor.

Kevin, 39, told investigators that it was Niño who shot Mayor Boniel.?

Police said Kevin joined policemen led by Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of Police Regional Office 7, during the search for the mayor’s body in the waters off Caubian Island, Lapu-Lapu City.?

Kevin said he just drove the boat after he was called by Niño to go to the Dive Camp, where Mayor Boniel and her friend were staying last Tuesday.?

Investigators said Niño’s men wrapped the mayor’s body in a fish net, weighted it down with two stones of about 30 kilos then threw her into the sea off Caubian Island. 

During interrogation, one of the suspects reportedly admitted dumping the victim’s body in the sea off Lapu-Lapu City.