MANILA, Philippines—Police were trying to determine Saturday how a man and woman were killed in a Quezon City motel room where they were both found with bullet wounds in the head Friday afternoon.
Police said the discovery of the bodies, along with two guns and large quantities of a substance that appeared to be shabu or metamphetamine hydrochloride, was made moments after a shot rang out from the room, injuring a motel employee who was knocking at the door to inform the couple that their time in the room was up.
It was still unclear who pulled the trigger of the gun or guns that killed Aiza Cortez, 27, of Pangasinan and Ryan Guibon, 31, of General Santos City.
An employee of the Taxi Line Apartelle on P. Tuazon Boulevard in Barangay San Roque, Cubao, was hit by a bullet on the right leg as she knocked on the door of the couple’s room on the second floor around 4:50 p.m. Friday.
Aside from two guns, at least six sachets of or shabu were found in a bag inside the room, as well as eight tea bags of shabu.
“It is possible that the victims were involved in illegal drugs, although that amount is too much for an ordinary user,” said Chief Inspector Rodelio Marcelo, head of the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit.
Case investigator Senior Police Officer 1 Jaime Jimena said a similar crystalline substance was also recovered from the toilet bowl in the bathroom.
“It was as if there was an attempt to flush the substance,” Jimena said, adding that the substance has been sent to the crime laboratory for examination.
Guibon was found dead in a sitting position on the floor of the bathroom with a gunshot wound on the left temple.
Cortez was found sprawled on the bedroom floor, also with a bullet wound on the head but still breathing. She was dead on arrival however at the Quirino Memorial Medical Center.
Jimena said it was still unclear if the deaths were the result of a suicide pact.
“No one actually saw who pulled the trigger. The bodies have been subjected to a paraffin test although the results are not yet in,” he said.
The couple checked in at 6:50 p.m. Thursday and were due to check out on Friday afternoon.
Motel employee Ignalyn Cabelin, 29, was sent to Room 26 to inform the couple that their time had already lapsed.
After she knocked on the door, the chambermaid was shocked to hear a gunshot from inside the room.
Cabelin ran away when she felt she was hit on the right leg, and reported the matter to a cashier who took her to the hospital.
A security guard then called in the police, who opened the room with a duplicate key, and rushed Cortez to the hospital upon seeing that she was still breathing.
A caliber .22 homemade revolver with a live cartridge and two spent shells were found in the toilet’s water tank, while a caliber .45 pistol with an empty magazine was recovered near Guibon’s body in the bathroom.
Also recovered was a spent caliber .45 shell and a slug of the same caliber, and several duffel bags.