5 charged for killing ‘Masculados’ man

MARCELO “OZU” ONG Inquirer Bandera

FIVE men have been charged with the murder of Marcelo “Ozu” Ong, a member of the all-male entertainment group Masculados Dos, after one of the suspects confessed to the crime.

The extrajudicial confession of Kristopher Kyle Ernie linking him and four other men to the killing of the 30-year-old Ong prompted the Rizal provincial police office to sue them for  murder and car theft.

Senior Supt. Bernabe Balba, Rizal police director, named the two other suspects as James Ilano, 34, a tricycle driver, and Paulo Hernandez, 34, a call center agent. The remaining two suspects have yet to be identified. Of the five, only Ernie and Hernandez are in the custody of authorities.

In a press briefing at Camp Crame on Thursday, Balba said that after Ernie’s arrest, investigators were able to get leads on the Aug. 2 killing of Ong in Angono, Rizal.

On that day, Ong was driving  home to Primrose Hills Subdivision in his brand new Toyota Hilux pickup when he was followed by still unidentified men. They robbed and shot him then fled in his vehicle which has yet to be recovered. The victim later died in the hospital.

Ernie was arrested on Sept. 14 for drug possession with three other men, one of them Hernandez, in Dasmariñas, Cavite province. Seized from them was the Subaru Forester of seaman John Arnest Agbayani who was reported missing on Aug. 16 and found dead in Tagaytay City two days later.

However, the police have yet to determine if Agbayani and Ong were killed by the same set of suspects.

“We received information that one of the suspects in the Ong case was detained in Dasmariñas. Ernie eventually confessed what he knew about the murder of Ong since he was one of the suspects,” Balba said.

According to Ernie, he drove the maroon Toyota Innova used by the group as the getaway vehicle after Ong’s murder. With him were Ilano—who was the one who shot Ong—and Hernandez.

Ernie added that he threw away the license plates of Ong’s vehicle and the victim’s belongings at the Bukal Bridge in Pala Pala, Dasmariñas, Cavite.

Authorities later recovered the license plates, the victim’s ATM and ID cards, passport, reading glasses and black boots, along with a cal. .45 pistol and casing believed to have been thrown away by the suspects.

Balba said ballistics tests showed that the slug recovered from Ong’s body was fired from the recovered pistol.