Severed head found in Camarines Sur matches description of Masbate ambush victim

LEGAZPI CITY –A severed head found inside an icebox on a roadside in Lupi, Camarines Sur, has matched the descriptions given by the family of an ambush victim who was beheaded in Masbate City, police said Monday.

Superintendent Cerilo Trilles Jr., Masbate City chief of police, said initial descriptions of the decapitated head provided by the Camarines Sur Provincial Police Office matched the descriptions given by the family of Flor Rapsing, the ambush victim.

Rapsing, 39, was beheaded by still unknown men in an ambush at the National Road in Purok 2, Barangay Usab, Masbate City around 12:10 p.m. Saturday. He was the driver of the Supleto brothers Samson, 50, and Jeremiah, 47, who were also killed in the ambush.

The head was found Sunday night by a resident of Lupi who notified Mayor Roberto Matamorosa. It was turned over to the police crime laboratory for autopsy and preservation.

Trilles, in a phone interview, said Chief Inspector Jerome Regatchuelo, police chief of Lupi, described the decapitated head as that of a male person.

“The head has the same ‘semi-kalbo’ (semi-bald) haircut and an earring on the left ear, like Rapsing,” Trilles said.

He said the Masbate City Police Office and Lupi Municipal Police Office were communicating on the transport of the severed head to Masbate for identification.

Trilles said they were also coordinating with Rapsing’s family in case a family representative prefers to go to Camarines Sur instead to identify the head.

The ambush on Rapsing and his employers is believed linked with a multiple murder and robbery case in the mining town of Aroroy in Masbate on April 5. Gold mill owner Jesus Amaro, his son Gilbert, and their family driver Ricky Almodiel were killed by nine gunmen posing as members of Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police. AU