WAS the self-confessed killer of businessman Ramon Teodoro “TY” Garcia waiting for him along Sparrow Street in Ecoland Subdivision on the night he was killed?
This can be gleaned from the affidavit of tricycle driver Jonabe Monredondo Ladag, 30, who happened to be around when the suspect John Jamora Liawan alias Jan-jan, 23, entered Garcia's Toyota Innova.
In his affidavit, Ladag said he was soliciting passengers along the highway in Ecoland at 12:30 a.m. Friday, he saw a golden brown vehicle stop on Sparrow Street from which a young woman alighted from the front seat and vomited on the roadside.
"That time, while the vehicle was waiting for the young lady, I saw a man suddenly entered in the vehicle. The man was a companion of the lady. He is also renting a house on Sparrow Street. I noticed that he had a struggle with the driver of the vehicle, then the girl hurriedly entered the car, and they left towards terminal," Ladag’s affidavit read.
Ladag said he identified the woman as the other suspect Daisy Joy Supatan Cachapero alias Angel, 26, and the man who entered the vehicle as Liawan because they are his regular passengers.
He added that when the vehicle left, he went to the police station to report what he saw.
Meanwhile, the City Prosecutor’s Office (CPO) is yet to resolve the criminal case filed against the two suspects who killed Garcia in Davao Region last week.
A source from the bureau, who refused to be named for lack of authority to speak, said the case has yet to be resolved by the fiscal assigned, as some documents that are necessary for the case, were submitted to the fiscal only yesterday.
Charged with robbery with homicide are Liawan, who hails from Koronadal City, and his live-in partner Cachapero, who is from Barangay Poblacion in Sulop town in Davao del Sur.
The suspects were charged based on the complaint filed by the victim's son Theodore Delfin Maravilla Garcia, 40, and based on the sworn statements of the witnesses Dr. Ramon Bello Morada, 67, and the tricycle driver Ladag, who hails from Compostela Valley Province.
Garcia, in his sworn statement, said his father left home around 9 p.m. Thursday to meet up with his friends. He added that it was 3:30 a.m.
Friday when her mother contacted him, as his father failed to return home in Maa.
"I went personally to our family house in Maa around 6 a.m. to verify the report of my mother and confirmed that my father failed to return. I together with my family and friends exerted effort to locate my father. [But since we cannot find him], we informed the authorities around 6 p.m. that my father is missing," Garcia said.
Morada meanwhile confirmed that the victim contacted him to meet up with him at Apo View Hotel at 9 p.m. Thursday. There, the victim was with umbrella girl Angel.
"[It was] 9:45 p.m. when I asked permission to [Ramon and Angel] that I’ll be going home ahead. I left them. I was surprised when Mrs. Garcia called and looked for his husband. She said his husband has not yet returned home that prompted me to contact Angel and asked her, but the latter said she didn't know," Morada said.
In that call, Morada said, Angel told him that she and the elder Garcia transferred to Primo Bar in front of the hotel and that was where she left him because she was brought home by a friend who was going to Ecoland where she lives.
"I was advised by the family of the victim to join them in meeting the Davao City Mayor [Rodrigo R. Duterte] at 6 p.m. Friday. During the discussion, I learned that there was a reported dead body found at Sitio Baluyan in Malalag town and the cadaver was brought to Collado Funeral Homes," he said.
Morada added that they also learned that a Toyota Innova was found torched at Sitio Dalandang in Malungon town in Saranggani Province. It was then the city mayor directed the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) director Senior Supt. Vicente Danao Jr. and other authorities to conduct investigation and also check the city cameras.
It was Liawan who claimed he only stabbed the victim when a tricycle passed by that caused him to panic.
The two drove off to dispose of the body. Garcia’s body, which bore multiple stab wounds and his mouth sealed with masking tape, was found down a cliff at Sitio Baluyan in Barangay Bolton in Malalag at 9 a.m.
Davao del Sur Provincial Police Office (DSSPO) director Senior Supt. Michael John Dubria told Sun.Star Davao that personnel of the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) and Talomo Police Station in coordination with Malalag Municipal police and Sulop Municipal police arrested the suspects between 12 midnight to 2 a.m. on Saturday.
"It's around 11 p.m. Friday when Chief Inspector [Alfredo] Santillana [from the Talomo police] coordinated with this office for the identification of the cadaver found in Malalag town… Information revealed that the two suspects were sighted in Sulop town, that's the time we conducted our pursuit operation," Dubria said.
Dubria said the suspects were brought to Malalag Municipal Police Station and Sulop Municipal Police Station for their arrests to be recorded before being turned over to the DCPO, where the two faced DCPO director Senior Supt. Vicente Danao Jr.
Arrest
They were then presented to the city mayor at the ABS-CBN studio where he had an engagement. Liawan’s arm had burn marks from torching Garcia’s Toyota Innova in Barangay Nagpan in Malungon town, Sarangaani on Friday.
Around 4 a.m. Saturday, Danao with the aid of the Barangay Poblacion chair Tagud Hernan of Sulop town, recovered several belongings of the victim including an iPhone, a sling pouch with gold necklace, a silver necklace, Timex watch, a Swiss army knife, and a Samsung earphone from the house of Daisy's mother.
The police also recovered a drug test result of Liawan, a green sling pouch with Union Bank E-Wallet card of the victim, P24,420 cash, an SM Advantage card owned by Daisy, and a pair of earrings. By 2 p.m.
Saturday, police recovered the gold bracelet of the victim, which was spawned by Liawan at a pawnshop along C.M. Recto Street in Davao City.