‘Ramgen’s murder an inside job’

Janelle Manahan has “very revealing” information that could lead to the identification of the killer of her boyfriend, Ramgen Bautista, her lawyer Argee Guevarra told Radyo Inquirer Tuesday.

Quoting from his conversations with Manahan, Guevarra said that Bautista’s murder was the result of a “family feud” that got out of control. “I could outrightly say this is an inside job, plain and simple,” he added.

Manahan was released from Asian Hospital Tuesday after a monthlong treatment for a gunshot wound in the face, which she sustained during the attack on Bautista.

She has applied for coverage under the witness protection program, Guevarra added.

On the night of October 28, a hooded man shot and stabbed Bautista inside his room at the family’s house in BF Homes Parañaque. Manahan, who was with him, was shot in the face and chest.

Bautista’s sister Ma. Ramona, or Mara, was also in the room and initially said she was abducted by the assailant, and dropped off near a mall hours later. Her statement, however, was disproved by subdivision security guards who saw her and her brother Ramon Joseph, or RJ, leave the area minutes after the attack on their brother.

At least two other suspects later named RJ, who was arrested on October 31, and Mara as the masterminds.

According to Guevarra, Manahan is recovering well and will soon submit an affidavit that will debunk the “outright lies” made by Mara in a counter-affidavit supposedly sent from Turkey.

He said that Ramona, in her sworn statement, downplayed the “feud” among the Bautista siblings as a simple misunderstanding over “who gets to use which car.”

Manahan, however, described it as “much deeper, that Ramgen’s siblings did something bad to him,” Guevarra quoted her as saying.

In fact, it reached a point where Manahan herself got tangled up in the feud because she sided with her boyfriend.

Guevarra also said that he examined Mara’s statement and found it “very damaging” to the victim’s other sibling.

“She [Ramona] practically pointed to Gail [another sibling]) and Gail’s husband, Hiro,” Guevarra said.

Earlier, another witness tagged Gail as having a hand in her brother’s murder.

With this latest twist, Guevarra appealed to former Senator Ramon Revilla Sr. and Genelyn Magsaysay, the parents of the victim, to help in the investigation.

“A conspiracy was hatched to kill Ramgen. It is not right to have another conspiracy of silence and cover-up,” he said.