Murder of FHM girl, 3 friends ‘solved’
By Ansbert Joaquin, Tonette Orejas
Central Luzon Desk
First Posted 23:48:00 04/14/2008
OLONGAPO CITY – Police declared as “solved but not yet closed” the March 13 murders of FHM model Scarlet Garcia and three others here following the filing of murder charges with arson against two suspects on Monday.
Ferdinand Carderas and Jay-Ar Perez Mojica were arrested on robbery and rape charges in the City of San Fernando in Pampanga on April 4. They were identified by the Pampanga police as Ferdinand Cadenas and JR Mojico.
Garcia, George Vitug Castor Jr., Von Mark Bandejas and Racheil Estacio (identified in some police reports as Rachel Estacio) were found sprawled in the living room and toilet of Garcia’s apartment, all with bullet wounds in their heads.
The suspects were implicated in the Olongapo murders after results of ballistic tests done by the PNP Crime Laboratory in Camp Crame showed that a bullet and a cartridge used in Olongapo were fired from a gun recovered in the San Fernando cases, Supt. Daisy Babor, chief of the PNP regional crime laboratory, told reporters.
Denial
The two suspects denied involvement in the murders, Senior Supt. Keith Singian, Pampanga police director, said.
The specimens, which were subjected to cross-matching, were a “9-mm slightly deformed jacketed fired bullet marked MAA-4-08” and a “9 X 29 mm fired cartridge case marked MAA-1-08 to MAA-5-08” found at the crime scene in Garcia’s apartment and a “9-mm Parabellum V. Bernadelli SRA model P018S pistol with serial number 303240 marked RCS4,” said Chief Insp. Ronald Yusi, forensic firearms examiner.
“The specimens really matched,” Chief Supt. Errol Pan, police director for Central Luzon, said in announcing the solution of the case. “But it is not yet closed,” he told reporters, referring to pursuit operations against the three other suspects.
Microscopic examination and comparison of the bullet and cartridge “revealed the same individual characteristics with the test bullets and cartridge cases fired from the 9-mm Parabellum,” said a two-page report by Supt. Reynaldo de Guzman, forensic firearms examiner and chief of the PNP national firearms identification division. Senior Supt. Liza Sabong, chief of the PNP directorial staff, noted the report.
Singian said the Parabellum gun was recovered from Cadenas during the arrest. Mojico, who initially identified himself as John Ariel Santos, held a .45-cal. pistol.
The suspects are detained at the Pampanga provincial jail as they awaited prosecution for robbery and multiple rape cases in two courts in San Fernando.
Respondents
In the Olongapo case, Cadenas, 21, and Mojico, 23, were named respondents, together with several John Does. Their three cohorts, who Singian said belonged to the Galindez and Sako gangs, have been the subject of a manhunt since last week.
Senior Supt. Abelardo Villacorta, Olongapo police chief and head of Task Force Scarlet, said the witnesses who saw two men entering and leaving Garcia’s apartment at Gordon Heights on the night before the four victims were found, also identified the two arrested suspects.
Villacorta, however, said the police have yet to establish the motive for the murders. He said the police are also awaiting the results of another test to determine if the suspects also raped Garcia and Estacio, her cousin.
Gerardo Bandejas, father of Bandejas, said he was not satisfied with the arrest of the two suspects. All the culprits, including the mastermind, should be arrested and jailed, he said.
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