Police hunt Zamboanga del Sur killers

PAGADIAN CITY, Philippines—Police have started a manhunt for a male suspect and other suspects in Monday night’s massacre of four people, including a pregnant woman and a five-year-old boy, while they slept in their home in a village on the outskirts of Kumalarang in Zamboanga del Sur.

As this developed, police investigators cleared another man, who had been taken in for questioning about the deaths of Elizabeth Saquilabon, 58, the matriarch of the Saquilabon family; her daughters Kareen Anduhon, 21, who was pregnant, and Sheremae Saquilabon, 16; and five-year old Ryan Christian Ferolino, a son of Anduhon from a previous marriage. The boy was reported earlier to be a girl.

Police investigators told the Inquirer the suspect now being hunted was jealous about Sheremae’s reported relationship with a lesbian.

Supt. Jose Bayani Gucela, Zamboanga del Sur police chief, said the male suspect, whom he did not identify, deeply resented the lesbian’s recent visit to Sheremae, a school band majorette.

Insp. Aurelio Dolores Jara said the mode of killings indicated that one of the three to four men believed to have carried out the massacre harbored deep anger toward the victims.

Jara said the killers stabbed and axed the victims to death near midnight while they were asleep.

None of the female victims had been sexually abused, he said.

The murder weapons, Jara said, were recovered separately outside the residence of the victims.

He said investigators theorized the killers had a drinking session near the victims’ house “because we discovered empty bottles of beer.”

Jara said the victims apparently knew the suspects but since they lived in isolation from the rest of the village, “when the attack took place no one was aware of what was happening.”

Jara said the victims’ bodies were found Tuesday “when somebody came for a visit.”