Eyewitness in Viña slay also murdered in Cavite

An alleged witness in the recent killing of a police official associated with Sen. Panfilo Lacson was found dead with several stab wounds in his resthouse Sunday in Cavite.

Benjamin Tulabot, 56, postmaster of Ternate town, was found by family members sprawled on the unfinished balcony of his resthouse in Barangay Punta in Tanza town.

Eight stab wounds were found in the victim’s chest and neck, which also bore signs of strangulation.

Police have tagged two construction workers — one of whom was identified as Jimmy Dogino — as suspects. Both are at large.

Police said the suspects may have killed Tulabot when he scolded them for not completing the work on the house on time even though he had already paid them in full.

However, investigators are also trying to determine if Tulabot’s death was related to the killing of Senior Superintendent Teofilo Viña, who was gunned down on Jan. 7 at a gathering in Tanza, also in Cavite.

Sources said Tulabot was among several people who were seated with Viña at a table when suspect Medar Cruz walked up and gunned down Viña.

National Bureau of Investigation Director Reynaldo Wycoco said yesterday they are looking for another probable witness, Renato Joshue Arenas, a former police officer.

He said NBI agents will track down Arenas if he does not show up at the NBI within 48 hours to shed light on the killing.

Wycoco also revealed that the murder weapon — a Sig Sauer 9-mm automatic — was bought in 2001 at a gun shop in the United States by a Filipino-American, according to US customs authorities.

Police are checking the background of the original gunowner, who they refused to identify. The NBI is now trying to find out who brought the gun to the Philippines.

"There was no official entry of the firearm in the Philippines so it could have been smuggled," Philippine National Police chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. said.

Police suspect Viña’s assassination may be connected to the killing of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.

Dacer and Corbito were waylaid by several armed men on Nov. 24, 2000, at the busy intersection of Osmeña Highway and Pablo Ocampo Sr. in Manila while heading for Dacer’s office at Manila Hotel.

The victims’ remains were found in a remote barangay in Indang, also in Cavite on April 11 the following year.

Viña was among the 22 suspects initially charged for the murders.

Police have earlier arrested two police officers and are hunting down several others — all former members of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) — for the Dacer-Corbito murders. – With Mike Frialde, Christina Mendez