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Friday, May 07, 2004
Glo promises full security to island guests
BORACAY -- President Arroyo broke her busy campaign schedule and flew to the resort island of Boracay Thursday to reassure residents the savage murder of three Westerners was an isolated incident.
Arroyo spent 40 minutes with investigators at the luxury villa where the murders took place on the island some 300 kilometers south of Manila.
The foreign victims were identified as Swiss-born art gallery owner Manfred Schoeni, German property developer and villa owner Anton Faustenhauser, and Hong Kong-based British architect John Cowperthwaite.
Chief Supt. George Alino, who accompanied Arroyo, said police have detained nine of the 25 construction workers who were questioned after the bodies were found on Sunday morning.
Schoeni, who was building a villa next door to Faustenhauser, had employed the workers.
Arroyo was shown the weapons used in the murder--a bread knife said to have been used on the as yet unidentified Filipina maid, and a meat knife, which was used on the others.
Alino said police were still working on the robbery theory but were keeping an open mind.
A Rhodesian Ridgeback dog owned by Faustenhauser is understood to have been tied up in the maid's quarters at the time of the murder.
Arroyo repeated three times that the murders were an isolated incident. She said that during Easter Holy Week some 100,000 people visited Boracay and the police did not report one incident.
She said the government had invested a lot in the resort's security, which is a popular tourist destination nestling in the azure waters of the Sulu Sea.
Alino said there were 130 security personnel who regularly patrol the island.
Some resorts on the island have reported some cancellations following the murders, which have shocked Boracay and the expatriate community in Hong Kong.
Schoeni was a leading dealer in Chinese contemporary art with two galleries in Hong Kong's fashionable SoHo district. The British architect was the son of Sir John Cowperthwaite, Hong Kong's financial secretary between 1961 and 1971.
Faustenhauser, 69, had finished building his house about 14 months ago and was subdividing his one-hectare (2.47-acre) lot into building blocks. Schoeni was building a villa next door.
Boracay had been considered relatively safe for tourists, as it is some distance from the Muslim and communist rebellions further south.
(May 7, 2004 issue)
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