4 killed in Zambo del Sur massacre

PAGADIAN CITY, Philippines—Four people, including a pregnant woman and a five-year-old girl, were murdered in their sleep in a village on the outskirts of the town of Kumalarang in Zamboanga del Sur late Monday evening, police said Tuesday.

Superintendent Jose Bayani Gucela, Zamboanga del Sur police chief, said a suspect has been taken in for  questioning over the deaths of Elizabeth Saquilabon, 58, the matriarch of the Saquilabon family; her daughters Kareen Anduhon, 21, who was pregnant, and Sheremae Saquilabon, 16; and Ryan Christian Ferolino, 5, a son of Anduhon from a previous marriage.

Gucela declined to identify the suspect but added that other persons could have also been involved in the massacre that took place in Barangay Bogayo.

“We have in our custody a possible suspect,” he said.

Gucela said the police were considering robbery, and maybe even love triangle, as a motive for the killings.

Inspector Aurelio Dolores Jara, operations officer of the police’s Scene of the Crime Operatives, the victims sustained multiple wounds.

He said the killers, estimated to be between three and four persons,  stabbed and axed the victims to death about near midnight while they were asleep.

None of the female victims had been sexually abused, he said.

The murder weapons, Jara said, were  recovered separately outside the residence of the victims.

He said investigators theorized that the killers  had a drinking session near the victims’ house “because we discovered empty bottles of beer.”

Jara said the victims apparently knew the suspects.

He said the house of the victims  was isolated from the rest of the village. “So when the attack took place no one was aware of what was happening,” he said.

Jara added the victims’ bodies were found Tuesday “when somebody came for a visit.”

In pursuing the love triangle angle, Jara said the police learned that Sheramae Saquilabon, a high school band majorette, had a relationship with a lesbian.

He said the relationship turned sour when the victim took a boyfriend.

“We are also looking at this angle,” Jara said.

Jara said to speed up the investigation, the police were gathering fingerprints from the empty bottles and traces of saliva for DNA testing.