LONG before the gruesome murder of 16-year-old Christine Lee Silawan captured national headlines, when the bounty for any information that would lead authorities to her killers hadn’t reached P2 million, before law enforcement agencies outside Cebu decided to dip their hands in the investigation, there was Senior Supt. Limuel Obon.
Obon, head of the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office, had first dibs on the case since Silawan was killed in his jurisdiction. He was also at the scene soon after Silawan’s half-naked, mutilated body was discovered in a vacant lot in Barangay Bankal last March 11.
The police official knew he had stumbled into something really big. So from the outset, he was very careful.
A witness had told police she saw the victim fleeing from three men on a motorcycle. This was around 2 a.m. of March 11. The witness said one of the men grabbed the girl’s sling bag until she fell on the ground. One of them covered Silawan’s mouth, while the other stabbed her in the neck several times. They pulled down her lower garments and raped her. They later skinned her face, the witness said.
Obon said they would invite for questioning the persons who were last seen with Silawan.
On March 14, Obon said they had a suspect, but he refused to divulge his name. However, he assured the public that the latter was not a fall guy. The only detail Obon gave the media was that the suspect communicated with the victim. That, among other things, the suspect was a techie who was wanted for murder and who was familiar with police work.
Then Jonas Bueno entered the picture.
His arrest in Davao City last March 15 led to claims by law enforcement agencies there and in Manila that he was the primary suspect in Silawan’s killing even though police here in Cebu said he was neither a suspect nor a person of interest.
And just like that, Obon, the man who had been up to his neck in the investigation, was suddenly sidelined.
That same weekend, the National Bureau of Investigation 7 took into custody John (not his real name), the victim’s 17-year-old ex-boyfriend by virtue of the hot pursuit principle after he was identified by witnesses.
John, though, was set free last Saturday, March 23, because of a technicality. It didn’t mean he was innocent, authorities pointed out.
Last Tuesday, March 26, President Duterte ordered John re-arrested. Police also revealed that there might have been five persons involved in the murder.
Somehow, it appears all of Obon’s hard work has come to naught.