Cops link head in icebox to ambush victim

NAGA CITY—A severed head found inside an icebox on a roadside of Andaya Highway in Lupi, Camarines Sur province, on Sunday night has matched the description of an ambush victim, who was beheaded in Masbate City Saturday noon.

Supt. Cerilo Trilles Jr., Masbate City chief of police, in a phone interview Monday said initial descriptions by the Camarines Sur Provincial Police Office of the decapitated head found in Barangay (village) Kabutagan, Lupi, at 9 p.m. Sunday have matched those given by the family of ambush victim Flor Rapsing.

Rapsing, 39, was beheaded by still unknown men in an ambush at the National Road of 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.

Trilles quoted Chief Insp. Jerome Regatchuelo, Lupi police chief, who said the head was that of a male person with “the same semibald haircut and an earring on the left ear, like Rapsing’s.”

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

The ambush on Rapsing and his employers, the Supleto brothers, are believed linked to a multiple murder and robbery case in Barangay Luy-a in the mining town of Aroroy in Masbate on April 5.

Gold mill owner Jesus Amaro, 64, his son Gilbert, 36, and their family driver Ricky Almodiel were killed by nine gunmen posing as members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police.

Trilles said the Masbate City Police Office is coordinating with the Aroroy Municipal Police Office.