PNP to provide security for slain siblings’ kin

The police have agreed to provide security for the family members of Petronio “Jhay-R” Rosales Jr. and younger sister Lauren Kristel, the siblings who were killed by unidentified gunmen in Makati City on July 21 and Oct. 26, respectively.

This was after thieves broke into the Rosales residence in Sta. Ana, Manila, on Friday while the household members were all at Jhay-R’s wake at Loyola Memorial Chapel in Guadalupe Viejo, Makati. Two TV sets and three laptops were stolen, the police said.

The Southern Police District director, Senior Supt. Tomas Apolinario, said members of the Makati police will initially be posted at the wake and will keep watch over the family after Jhay-R’s cremation on Monday. Like Kristel’s ashes, those of her brother will be brought to the columbarium at Our Lady of the Abandoned Parish in Sta. Ana.

“The Philippine National Police at Camp Crame is working out a permanent security detail,” Apolinario said on Saturday.

A relative of the Rosaleses, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, said they were afraid that another family member would be killed by the same perpetrators who targeted the siblings.

The 34-year-old Jhay-R, who had been following up the case of his slain sister for the past three months, was killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen on Wednesday in front of a restaurant at the corner of Yakal and Talisay Streets in San Antonio, Makati.

Kristel, 26, was gunned down by a fellow jeepney passenger on July 21 at the corner of N. Garcia Street (Reposo Street) and J.P. Rizal Avenue, also in Makati.

PO3 Rodel Benitez of the Manila Police District’s Sta. Ana station said thieves destroyed a padlock to force their way into the Rosales’s two-story residence Friday morning.

Meanwhile, PO3 Rolando Villaranda, the Makati police officer investigating Jhay-R’s death, said the theft would be included as a possible factor in the ongoing probe, noting that the stolen laptops may contain information leading to the killers.