2 suspects arrested for rob-slay of QC businesswoman

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MANILA, Philippines—Quezon City policemen arrested on Saturday night the man allegedly responsible for the March 20 killing of a businesswoman as well as the attack on her 84-year-old mother and a teenage housemaid inside their home in La Loma.

Senior Supt. Richard Albano, the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director, said that Von Bernardo, of Barangay (village) Bago Bantay was nabbed in a drug sting and follow-up operation along Tomas Morato Avenue in Barangay South Triangle by operatives of the Kamuning police station. Bernardo is a suspect in the murder of 50-year-old businessowman Ma. Salud Gatmaitan, whose throat was slit by her attacker.

According to Albano, Bernardo is the son-in-law of the man previously arrested for the killing of 72-year-old Cenen Urbano, and goes by the nickname “Jay.”

Also arrested in the police operation was Ariel Cristobal, 30, of Barangay San Antonio, whose possible involvement in the businesswoman’s killing as well as the assault on 84-year-old Noemi Pineda and 18-year-old Mayla Fadera is still being investigated.

Albano told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that Bernardo, before the March 20 attack, had been in the watchlist of suspected drug offenders of the QCPD anti-illegal drugs unit.

He said that Bernardo, who was allegedly identified by a witness as Gatmaitan’s killer, might have been high on illegal drugs when he slit the throat of the businesswoman. “He (Bernardo) had a gun at the time but he used a pair of scissors to slice her throat,” Albano said.

The QCPD director said that operatives of the Kamuning police station’s anti-illegal drugs unit spotted and caught up with Bernardo and Cristobal at around 7 p.m., Saturday, just as they were about to board a taxi. When frisked, Bernardo yielded a .38 revolver, a hand grenade and an undetermined quantity of suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu.

Albano explained that Bernardo apparently held a grudge against Gatmaitan for almost driving his wife to suicide over a debt that she could not pay. “His (Bernardo’s) wife owed the victim a large sum of money and could not pay back her loan. It is one of the possible angles our investigators are looking into,” he said, adding that the Gatmaitan family has claimed to have lost P3 million worth of valuables in the March 20 home invasion.

During the murder and robbery, the attackers repeatedly bludgeoned Gatmaitan’s mother and the housemaid before killing Gatmaitan inside her bedroom. Neighbors had told police investigators that they heard a woman screaming “Stop it Jay” before two men scampered out of the house and fled aboard a Mitsubishi Adventure.

The multi-purpose vehicle was abandoned minutes after the crime by the perpetrators at the parking area of the Sto. Domingo Church in Barangay Sto. Domingo. Recovered from the vehicle were a blood-stained jacket and a memory card, which led to the identification of the suspects.

Bernardo and Cristobal remain detained at the QCPD Kamuning station holding cell pending the filing of criminal charges against them in the city prosecutor’s office.

Apart from violation of the nationwide gun ban and of the dangerous drugs act, Bernardo will be charged with murder as well as two counts of attempted murder for the March 20 crimes.