2 cops linked to death of call center agent face murder raps in North Samar

CATARMAN, Northern Samar –– Murder charges have been filed against two policemen in relation to the brutal killing of 26-year-old Ellen Joy De Guia last May.

The police in Rosario town, Northern Samar, requested the provincial prosecutor’s office to conduct an investigation on Patrolmen Joker Dapulag and Joemil Bantayan.

On May 22, De Guia’s body was found in a drainage canal in Barangay Salhag, Rosario with a wound on her head and her pants pulled down to her knees.

Investigators learned that Dapulag and De Guia, who worked as a call center agent in Manila, had an affair.

Police provincial director Colonel Reynaldo Dela Cruz said the two were seen together in several places hours before De Guia was found dead.

“Her sibling was able to open the victim’s Facebook account and found out through conversations in Messenger that she and Dapulag had a relationship. And it seemed that they were quarreling at that time,” Dela Cruz told the Inquirer.

A blood sample lifted from Dapulag’s car matched with that of the victim’s upon examination at the crime laboratory office in Camp Crame.

This gave the police a theory that De Guia was in the car while she was already bleeding.

He added that Dapulag’s vehicle was already cleaned up when the forensic team from the Northern Samar Crime Laboratory Office inspected it.

“The car was already cleaned but we used a spray chemical called Luminol and we found out that there were still traces of blood inside the car. Our investigators lifted a sample and sent it to Camp Crame for laboratory exams. There, we found out that the blood stains belong to Ellen Joy.”

However, the seminal sample from the victim’s private part, which was also submitted for a laboratory test, turned negative.

Hence, the police dismissed the angle of rape in the crime.

Bantayan was considered an accomplice as he was also seen in the company of De Guia on the day that she was murdered.

The police found a money remittance receipt from Dapulag’s personal vehicle, which showed that he sent a certain sum of money to Bantayan.

The police also filed a complaint for obstruction of justice against civilian David Loberiano.

Loberiano reportedly posted on his Facebook page the name of a certain “Junjun Loberiano” as the real murderer of Ellen Joy.

But upon verification, the police found out that Junjun Loberiano was a fictitious name and that David was trying to mislead the investigation.

Dapulag and Bantayan are in the custody of the Personnel Administrative unit of the Northern Samar Provincial Police Office.

Dela Cruz gave the assurance that no favors or protection would be given to the suspects.

He reminded everyone though, that the accused were presumed innocent until the courts deem them guilty of the crime. (Editor: Leti Z. Boniol)