FOILED ESCAPE | Suspect Chao Tiao Yumol commandeered a car after the attack inside the Ateneo de Manila University campus in Quezon City but was captured by bystanders, whom he tried to run over, on Aurora Boulevard after a brief chase. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — The police have filed a criminal complaint of multiple murder and frustrated murder against the alleged assassin of former Lamitan City Mayor Rosita Furigay who was killed at the Ateneo de Manila University.
The complaint filed by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (CIDU) of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) in the Quezon City prosecutor’s office on Monday night accused Chao Tiao Yumol, a 38-year-old doctor, of three counts of murder for killing Furigay, 58, her aide Victor Capistrano, 49, and Ateneo security guard Jeneven Bandiala, 35.
Furigay’s daughter, 25-year-old Hannah Rose Marian Furigay, also was hit by a bullet fired by Yumol, for which the doctor faced a frustrated murder charge, according to the complaint.
The police also reported that another victim was wounded, Julia Manabat, 54, the mother of another law school graduate.
Police investigators said that Yumol attacked Furigay as she arrived on Sunday afternoon at the Ateneo campus in Quezon City to attend the graduation of her daughter from the Ateneo Law School. The Furigays were accompanied by Capistrano, a senior administrative assistant with the Lamitan city government.
Apart from the three counts of murder and frustrated murder, the police also filed complaints of car theft and malicious mischief amounting to P80,000, on behalf of car owner Johnny Palma.
Entry, escape
According to a QCPD investigation report, Yumol boarded a Grab vehicle driven by Ronald Minor to enter the Ateneo campus at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
To escape after the shooting, Yumol took Palma’s car, a yellow Honda Civic, at gunpoint, the police report said.
A driver whom the police identified as Raffy Degones reported to the Anonas Police Station, which has jurisdiction over Ateneo, that a yellow Civic with gunshot holes was left by a man at a gasoline station along Aurora Boulevard.
The man was seen trying to catch a ride on a tricycle but was not able to do so. He instead boarded a “mini modern bus jeep” bound for Cogeo, Rizal.
The Anonas Police Station and the QCPD Tactical Motorcycle Riding Unit pursued the escaping suspect until they were able to stop the mini bus. Degones positively identified Yumol, who was promptly arrested, the QCPD reported.
The police said officers seized a 9 mm pistol and a .45 caliber with a silencer, which was the weapon that Yumol apparently used to shoot Furigay and the others.
The .45-caliber pistol was later traced to Army First Lt. Jeremy Aquino.
Lost firearm
Army spokesperson Col. Xerxes Trinidad on Tuesday said Aquino lost his firearm “way back in 2019 while he was deployed in Patikul, Sulu.”
“His pistol was never found until today that shocked him, his lost firearm was recovered from a suspect involved in the shooting incident,” he added.
The police did not say how Yumol was able to acquire the weapons.
At Camp Karingal, the QCPD headquarters where he was taken, Yumol accused Furigay of “selling drugs in our province” and “destroying the lives of the youth.”
Yumol has a verified Facebook account where he expressed his ardent support for President Marcos and former President Rodrigo Duterte, especially the brutal drug war on drugs, and his disgust toward former Vice President Leni Robredo.
“I hope BBM [Bongbong Marcos] will revive the war on drugs in Mindanao,” Yumol told reporters.
Peace process ‘ally’
Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr., a former chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, condemned the assassination, saying it was a “brazen act of violence.”
Galvez said on Tuesday that he had known the slain ex-mayor for over a decade when he served in Basilan and later as chief of the Western Mindanao Command.
“I have witnessed how the former mayor spearheaded change and development efforts in Lamitan City,” he said.
“The peace process has lost a strong ally, especially in the island province of Basilan,” he said, referring to the peace accord between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
“Mayor Rose is known for her integrity and credibility on good governance that is why it is impossible to believe in those allegations and innuendos thrown against the late mayor and her family,” he said.
The Ateneo Human Rights Center (AHRC) on Tuesday condemned the violence and hoped that the authorities would “thoroughly investigate the incident and hold accountable the perpetrator of this tragic incident in a swift manner to accord justice to his victims.”
“Violence is and never will be justified,” it said.
It also recognized the heroism displayed by Bandiala “who sacrificed his life in ensuring the safety of our community.”“He showed us how to be a Man for Others,” the AHRC said.
Timeline of enmity
The killing of Furigay shocked many of her former constituents in Lamitan. Although in disbelief, many in the town knew about the highly public enmity between Yumol and the former mayor.
Yumol had been vocal on social media about his disdain for Furigay and her husband, accusing the couple of trying to kill him.
Longtime Lamitan resident and retired teacher Victoria Siason said Yumol’s hostility toward the ex-mayor began with the closure of his clinic that offered antirabies vaccination on orders of the Ministry of Health of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) for operating without a permit, among other violations.
Yumol believed that Furigay and her husband, Roderick, who is currently the city mayor, were behind the closure.
Complaints at Ombudsman
He then embarked on a social media campaign against local officials, accusing them of corruption. He also accused the then mayor of having dalliances with military officers assigned in the area.
In response to his online tirades and allegation, the couple filed multiple cyberlibel cases against the doctor. By the time of the Ateneo attack, he was facing 76 of them.
He got help from then Local Government Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III, who endorsed his complaints against the Furigay couple to the Office of the Ombudsman.
Yumol’s allegations against the Furigays included corruption, involvement in the illegal drug trade, and the mayor’s supposed penchant for playing in the City of Dreams Casino. Densing also submitted the couple’s answers refuting the accusations.
Yumol said he was attacked on Nov. 3, 2020, by an unidentified man outside of his residence in Quezon City. The attacker allegedly told him that it was the “last warning from the Furigay couple.”
Later that month, Yumol shared with the Inquirer screenshots of a June 25, 2020, letter to him from Police Brig. Gen. Romeo Caramat Jr. of the PNP Drug Enforcement Group, stating that Roderick Furigay was on the list of “high-value” individuals being monitored for alleged involvement in illegal drugs as a financier and protector. But in the same letter, Caramat said “no concrete evidence was found to substantiate the allegations.”
In January 2021, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in BARMM certified that it had not filed any drug case against the former mayor.
On Dec. 11, 2020, Yumol called the Inquirer to report that he was shot in Zamboanga City, behind the Woodridge Subdivision in Barangay Lunzuran, the day before a court hearing.
“Fortunately, we were spared because of the bulletproof curtain inside the vehicle,” he said.
—WITH A REPORT FROM FRANCES MANGOSING
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