Thousands flock to Nida’s funeral

Tens of thousands of fans lined streets leading to the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City yesterday to witness the funeral of actress Nida Blanca, who was brutally murdered a week ago.

The multi-awarded actress was buried as the Phi-lippine National Police (PNP)’s Task Force Marsha, which was created to solve the murder, announced it had made a "major breakthrough" in the case.

While investigators prepared to arrest yet unidentified suspects, police failed to control the crowd that lined the route to the cemetery and broke through the police cordon repeatedly to catch a glimpse of the white, flower-bedecked coffin bearing the actress’ remains.

Millions more tuned in to their television and radio sets as local stations temporarily junked regular programming to provide live coverage of the funeral that lasted more than four hours.

Blanca was buried at 4:37 p.m. inside a marble tomb beside that of her stepfather Jose Acuerza, followed by the release of white balloons amid weeping show business celebrities.

Moments after Blanca was interred, a ranking official of Task Force Marsha said at Camp Crame that police were now ready to arrest her killers.

"We wanted to wait until after the burial before we move against the suspects," the official told The STAR but he refused to identify them.

The official, who requested anonymity, said they identified the suspects through vital evidence that was retrieved from inside Blanca’s dark green Nissan Sentra car where she was found stabbed to death on Nov. 7.

"This is one of the missing links from the suspect and the crime," the source said, refusing to reveal details.

Also yesterday, a carpark attendant at a Roxas Boulevard hotel claimed she overheard four persons talking about a certain "Dory" (Blanca’s nickname) and "Nida," ABS-CBN news program "TV Patrol" reported.

The witness, who apparently requested anonymity, claimed she even saw one of the four people, at least two of whom she claimed were lesbians, hand over a thick envelope to one of the lesbians.

Blanca — Dorothy Jones in real life — was found dead at around 8 a.m. of Nov. 7 inside her car which was parked at the sixth floor parking lot of the Atlanta Towers Centre in Greenhills, San Juan.

A national radio network reported on Tuesday that a witness, whom police refused to identify, claimed he saw four people transferring the body of the actress from a van to her car.

The witnesses said he was about to leave when he noticed a red Toyota Tamaraw FX with license plate no. UFM-371 parked beside Blanca’s car.

A check with the Land Transportation Office (LTO) revealed the license plate was issued to a four-door Honda Civic registered under the name of one Elizabeth Trinidad, of Alicante I Bldg., Las Villas de Valle Verde in Pasig City.

The license plate is recorded to have been issued by the LTO office in Parañaque City.

A check with the PNP Traffic Management Group, however, showed there were no reports that the license plate was either stolen or missing.

Blanca was stabbed five times in the left cheek, five times in the left armpit, two at the back and one below the left ear. A stab that hit the jugular and another that pierced her larynx proved fatal, coroners said.

At the same time, police officials belied reports they have already arrested two suspects in the brutal murder but confirmed that the suspects have already been identified and are now being monitored.

PNP chief Director General Leandro Mendoza flatly denied the police have custody of the suspects but said crack agents are now closely monitoring their movements.

"What we have now are two key witnesses, not suspects. Our suspects are still out there but we are already tailing them" Mendoza said.

PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and Task Force Marsha chief, Director Nestorio Gualberto, echoed Mendoza’s denial of any arrest but pledged "it is just a matter of time before the suspects are arrested."

He revealed that while the task force is not ruling out any possible twist to the case, the probe has so far pointed to a personal grudge of someone who was personally known to Blanca as the motive for the killing. He refused to identify the supposed mastermind.

"We have already explored all other angles on this case and we only had a major breakthrough just the other day," Gualberto said. - With Sheila Crisostomo