A BANK employee working overtime, a security guard and his girlfriend were found shot in the head inside the premises of a rural bank in Pajo, Daanbantayan on December 31.
All three were shot with the use of a shotgun by a dismissed security guard once assigned to the Pajo branch of First Agro-Industrial Rural Bank Inc., known as Fairbank, police investigators said.
Some P80,000 cash is also missing from the bank.
PO3 Alfredo Mandal, chief investigator of the Daanbantayan Police Station, named the suspect as Berly Tudtud, 28, of Barangay Dakit, Bogo City.
Tudtud was on his last day of work after his contract was terminated because of an attitudinal problem in the workplace, police said.
The murder-cum-robbery is one of the worst crimes to have happened in Cebu’s northernmost town in a long time, Mandal said.
The crime was discovered at 6:35 a.m. of January 1 by security guard Bernardo Veraque who was to replace Tudtud for the morning shift at Fairbank.
Veraque arrived to see the the gate unlocked.
He went to the makeshift that Fairbank employees have been holding office in after super typhoon Yolanda destroyed the bank’s building last November 8.
There he saw three bodies, all bloodied.
Fellow guard, Dean Deserto, 26, and his live-in girlfriend Cecilia Torres, 30, were sprawled beside each other on the ground.
Two to three meters away, accounting clerk Jennelyn Migabon, 26, was hunched up by the computer banks.
Deserto was from Agujo, Daanbantayan. Torres was from Dakit, Barili and Migabon was from Dayhagon, Medellin.
All three were shot in the head with the use of a shotgun, Daanbantayan policeman Mandal said. The shotgun may have been Tudtud’s service firearm.
After Municipal medico-legal officer Merly Visda declared them dead, the three victims were brought to the Our Lady of Rule Funeral Homes.
At the crime scene, police recovered two empty shells of shotgun.
The service firearm of Deserto, a .38 revolver, was still in his pocket, indicating that he had not been able to defend himself and the two women, police said.
His mobile phone and Migabon’s were found inside the makeshift. Migabon was still holding hers.
These were brought by the Cebu Provincial Police Offices’ Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) for tests.
Some dishes that Torres had prepared for New Year’s Eve were left untouched. Torres had joined Deserto in his workplace to celebrate the New Year together.
Migabon, on the other hand, was working overtime to finish a financial report on loan payments. She had been at the office since Dec. 30.
Mandal, when interviewed by Sun.Star Cebu, said he believed the crime was carried out at 11:45 p.m.
A 35-year-old man who lives near the bank had heard a woman’s shout inside the bank.
The shout was “Ayaw, Ber!”, which may have come from Migabon.
Three successive gunshots followed.
The witness didn’t report the incident to police and dismissed what he heard as nothing but revelry shots, Mandal said.
“Nagtuo ra sad siya nga wala unya nasundan dayon ni og mga pabuto,” Mandal said.
During police inspection, a steel cabinet where cash was placed was missing and three drawers had been destroyed.
The culprit knew where the money was, Mandal said.
A closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera had been installed inside the bank but it has not been operating since the typhoon.
Mandal said suspect Tudtud had arranged his belongings and gone home to prepare for his departure. At around 11 p.m., he returned to the bank.
Deserto and Tudtud both came from Ricarte Security Agency in Barangay East Poblacion,
Naga City.
When police visited Tudtud’s house, his wife told them that Tudtud had told her that he was going to Cebu City to look for a job. She did not concern herself with his whereabouts because the couple fought often, Mandal said.
Tudtud is into drugs and has been showing erratic behavior, Mandal said. This was why he has fired from the security agency, among other reasons.
The loss of job had made Tudtud more irritable, Mandal said.
One of the grounds for firing Tudtud was his making unauthorized calls, which caused the bank’s phone bill to shoot up.
His services were terminated because, according to the bank’s branch manager, he had been making unauthorized calls.
“Sige kuno ni og telebabad,” Mandal said.
Tudtud had also become ill-tempered towards the other workers.
On one occasion, he challenged Deserto to a fistfight after Deserto refused to lend him P1,000 knowing that Tudtud, who was to be fired soon, would not be able to repay him.
Intelligence operatives of CPPO, together with the Daanbantayan Police Station, went to the areas where Tudtud could be hiding.
One of these was in San Remigio, where his parents live.
Police operatives could not find Tudtud.
Police believed he could have gone to Sagay, Negros Occidental where he has relatives.
Marynissa Pedroza, Fairbank vice president for admin, said the management would first attend to the funeral of the victims and bank operations before they issue a public statement.
FairBank started its commercial operations on Jan. 16, 1999. It has 11 branches in Cebu Province and caters to micro, small and medium entrepreneurs in the Visayas.