MANILA, Philippines ? Amanpulo Resort is managed and operated by Aman Resorts based in Singapore and 7-Seas Resort and Leisure Inc. is its owning company, according to a statement e-mailed to the Inquirer on April 12 by Narcisa Villaflor, 7-Seas treasurer.

?There are two development [projects] going on on Pamilacan Island, one of which is the Villa Development Project under 7-Seas Resort and Leisure,? Villaflor said. Villa has nothing to do with Amanpulo Resort, she said.

7 Seas has contracted Excell Construction Co., owned by Melquiades Castillo, to undertake the Villa Development Project and construction has been going on since March last year, Villaflor explained.

On April 5, a Saturday, Amanpulo Resort found itself in the middle of a murder investigation following the release of arrest warrants by the regional trial court in Palawan against its Portuguese manager Miguel Guedes de Sousa, Eastern Police District Supt. Manuel Aranas and four others for murder, obstruction of justice and illegal transport of a dead person.

Also charged were engineers Santi Geronimo and Simplicio Sambrano, Robert Hauchian, Capt. Mike Syjuco (company pilot), Choi de Leon, Sonny Rodriguez and Cesar Padilla, the resort?s chief of security.

On April 10, a Thursday, Provincial Prosecutor Allen Ross Rodriguez asked the Department of Justice to issue a hold departure order against de Sousa ?because of credible reports that he is leaving the country and because he has been implicated as an accessory to murder.?