THREE unidentified men with gunshot wounds in their heads were found lifeless in a motor boat off Purok 1, Barangay Poblacion, Aloguinsan yesterday dawn.
Four hours later, a woman with a head injury was found dead in Barangay Malubog, Cebu City.
All four remained unidentified as of last night.
In Aloguinsan’s case, Sherwin Adan and his wife Meriam found the men at 3:40 a.m.
Senior Insp. Armando Labora, the town’s police chief, said the Adans were about to board their fishing boat when they noticed a capsized boat, colored blue and white.
The rear of the boat had been damaged by flames and had marks, probably made using a bolo.
Tañon shootout?
Labora, in a phone interview, said they interviewed two fishermen who witnessed a shootout in Tañon Strait near Sipaway town around 2 p.m. last Thursday.
“Kining mga biktima armado ug katong mga suspek armado pod (The victims were armed and the suspects were also armed),” he said.
A .357 revolver with six bullets was found in the capsized boat.
The three victims were often seen catching fish inside the “arong,” a fish aggregating device another group of fishermen owned.
Aloguinsan Police Station is coordinating with the Negros police to identify the victims.
Sherwin and Meriam waded into the water and approached the boat, which is about 30 feet long and has no outriggers, to check what was wrong with it.
While examining the inner part of the boat, they found the dead men.
Shocked, they informed their neighbors and later the police.
Labora said their investigation led to Jionedes Adan Alcos, who admitted he was the one who towed the motor boat near the shore of Purok 1 last Thursday afternoon.
Alcos told investigators that he was sailing back home from fishing in the waters off Sipaway, Negros when he found the boat.
He decided to tow the boat and he arrived in Purok 1 around 12 a.m. yesterday. He did not know there were men inside the vessel.
A few hours later, at 7:45 a.m., a woman was found dead at the foot of a cliff in Sitio Tops, Barangay Malubog.
She had an injury in the left portion of her head, according to SPO2 Wetzel Berry of the Homicide section of the Cebu City Police Office.
She was found snagged by a tree. Judging by the conditions, she may have been dead for three to four days.
Irene?
Relatives of a missing person turned up to check if the woman was Irene Benitez, 30, who has been missing since Sunday.
Susan Suico, Benitez’s cousin, said that the family was beginning to panic after getting no word from her. They tried calling her phone several times, but a man answered it.
He told them that he had found the phone under a waiting shed on Gen. Maxilom Ave.
SPO2 Berry then showed the picture of the body found yesterday. The woman wore a green shirt, green shorts with floral print, and pink shoes—the same clothes that were seen on Benitez when she left the house her family rented on B. Rodriguez St.
Suico remains hopeful that it was not her cousin.
Benitez was a direct seller and a lender, according to Suico.
SPO2 Berry said that they have in their possession the phone of Benitez’s husband, Lester, who was allegedly in Toledo at the time of the incident.
Initial investigation said that prior to the incident, Benitez called Lester on Sunday night to ask if he would go to their rented house in B. Rodriguez.
Police are waiting for the autopsy report and are checking messages and mail on Lester’s phone, in search of further clues.