Family of slain beauty pageant bet files murder raps vs 5 individuals
Geneva Lopez and Yitshak Cohen —PHOTO FROMGENEVA LOPEZ’S FACEBOOK PAGE
MANILA, Philippines — The family of slain Mutya ng Pilipinas Pampanga candidate Geneva Lopez filed murder complaints against five individuals at the Department of Justice on Thursday.
Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Legal Department chief Thomas Valmonte said the names of the respondents cannot be disclosed at this time, but two of them are former police officers.
READ: Remains found in Tarlac confirmed to be of missing pageant bet, Israeli BF
“We actually filed a complaint for murder, two counts, for the deaths of Yitshak Cohen and Geneva Lopez. The complaint has been docketed already; there is an assigned docket number. There are five respondents that are impleaded in the complaint,” Valmonte said in an ambush interview.
Valmonte said two of the five respondents allegedly shot Lopez and her Israeli boyfriend, Cohen. One of the respondents was suspected to be involved in disposing of the bodies and the other two were involved in planning the entire act.
“May meeting silang ginawa that’s why mayroong allegation ng conspiracy. Nag-meeting sila at pinagplanuhan nila ang actual na pagpatay doon sa dalawang biktima,” he added.
(They held a meeting that’s why there are allegations of conspiracy. During the meeting, they planned the actual murder of the two victims.)
READ: Land row cited in the killing of beauty pageant bet, BF allegedly by ex-cops
The beauty contestant’s older sister Joni called for justice.
“Gusto namin managot lahat ng may sala at gusto namin na lahat sila walang matitira, at maparusahan sila,” she said.
(We want everyone involved to be held accountable and punished, no one should be spared.)
On June 21, Lopez and Cohen went to Tarlac to meet with a middleman, allegedly a former police officer, regarding a plot of agricultural land they wanted to buy.
However, the two have been reported missing since then, and the vehicle they used was found burning along Capas-San Jose Road.
Lopez and Cohen were found dead in Capas, Tarlac, on July 6.
