Councilor tagged in slay dead in apparent suicide

MAASIN CITY—A municipal councilor, who is a suspect in the killing of a woman in a hotel here, and his wife jumped off the roof deck of a hotel in Bato town, Leyte early Wednesday.

Councilor Reynaldo Castillo, village chief of Malbago in Bontoc town and ex-officio member of the Bontoc Municipal Council, was killed on the spot.

His wife, Verwina, who was said to be suffering from breast cancer, was in critical condition at the Ormoc Sugar Planters Association Farmers Medical Center in Ormoc City, Leyte.

The couple had no children.

Police found a note written in Cebuano inside the hotel room of the couple. The note contained phone numbers and the words “Forgive me.”

Death in hotel

Castillo was a suspect in the killing of Rosalinda Vanzuela, 41, who was found bloodied and sprawled inside a room at the fourth floor of the Southern Comfort Hotel in Maasin City, a day after she checked in at the hotel on Sept. 7.

Vanzuela, also a resident of Malbago, Bontoc, suffered wounds reportedly inflicted by broken glass and several contusions on her face.

The Maasin police considered Castillo a suspect after the hotel’s closed circuit television (CCTV) camera showed him entering the hotel a few hours after Vanzuela checked in.

The footage showed that Castillo was carrying a food pack and a ball pen marked Philippine Councilors League.

Evidence

Police found a food pack and a ball pen also marked Philippine Councilors League inside the room where Vanzuela was found.

On Sept. 13, Castillo surrendered to the Maasin police, citing security reasons. Last Sunday, or three days after his surrender, he left the police station purportedly to hear Mass. He didn’t come back.

Police could not stop Castillo from leaving in the absence of an arrest warrant for the councilor.

Coffee at the deck

Supt. Rico Tome, Maasin chief of police, had said Castillo would be charged with robbery with homicide. Robbery was included because several belongings of the victim remained missing.

On the day the complaint was filed, Castillo and his wife checked in at the Zam and JB Hotel in Bato town and stayed at Room 2 on the second floor.

Araba said that the couple ordered coffee between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Sept. 18 and stayed at the roof deck.

At about 2:45 a.m. Wednesday, a witness informed the police that he saw two persons lying on the ground in front of the Sam and SB Hotel.

Police later found a note in Cebuano, believed to be written by the councilor.

In the note, the councilor asked those who would find their bodies to call the phone numbers written on the note. The numbers turned out to be those of Bontoc officials.