Suspect in DFA exec’s slay falls

Government agents have arrested one of four suspects in the brutal slaying of Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Alicia Ramos in Makati City last month.

After two weeks of investigation, authorities now say they have identified all four suspects in the murder, though only one has been arrested.

The suspect, identified only as "Dodong," was arrested Thursday night by a joint team of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police in a raid in the town of Rodriguez (formely Montalban), Rizal.

Sources within "Task Force Alicia" said Dodong confessed to his role in the slaying of Ramos, 64, inside the victim’s home in Barangay Palanan, Makati City on April 24.

The suspect is now helping Task Force Alicia operatives track down the suspected mastermind of the murder in several areas of Makati.

"We are now coordinating surveillance operations at the house of the (suspected) mastermind’s parents and his common-law wife," a ranking police official told The STAR. "We are 100 percent (sure of) getting him and our evidence is overwhelming."

The source did not say how Dodong was traced to Rodriguez town, but said that right after the suspect’s arrest, Task Force Alicia members held a case conference and began operations to pursue and arrest the suspected mastermind along with Dodong’s two cohorts.

Another Task Force Alicia official claimed they had identified all the suspects in the Ramos killing.

The official said the mastermind appears to be a neighbor of Ramos who had done repair work on the victim’s house several months ago.

"We can say that the case has been solved now," the official said. "Our problem at present is to account for all of the suspects and charge them in court."

The official said they have the fingerprints of the three other suspects, which they intend to cross-match with the three sets of fingerprints taken from the crime scene by PNP Crime Laboratory personnel.

PNP Crime Laboratory head Chief Superintendent Ernesto Belen told The STAR he is awaiting fingerprint specimens from Task Force Alicia for comparison with those in the laboratory’s possession.

Belen said the fingerprints taken at the crime scene do not match any of the fingerprints of known criminals in the Crime Laboratory’s database.

"I don’t know how Task Force Alicia was able to get hold of (the Ramos slay) suspects’ fingerprints, which we will cross-match with those we lifted at the crime scene," he said.

Two of the fingerprints were lifted off a writing pad found on top of a table inside Ramos’ bedroom, while another fingerprint was recovered from the packing tape used to bind Ramos’ mouth.

Ramos’ body was found facedown on the floor by responding police personnel. Ramos’ sister, Leticia, reported to the police that their home was robbed four hours after the break-in.

Belen said Ramos’ face had been covered with a scarf and a towel had been found tied loosely around her neck. Her mouth had been covered with packing tape.

Other evidence recovered from the crime scene included a cigarette butt and a bloody, long-sleeved t-shirt.

Leticia told police the suspects entered their home in the morning while she was preparing to go to church. She said the suspects bound and gagged her before dumping her on the ground floor of the house. The suspects, she said, proceeded to the second floor of the house, where her sister was.

Leticia subsequently escaped the house and visited her other sister, who was confined in a hospital, before reporting the incident to police.

PNP Deputy Director General Avelino Razon Jr. created Task Force Alicia on the same day Ramos was found dead on the second floor of her house.

The task force is headed by Makati City police chief Senior Superintendent Jovy Gutierrez and has at its disposal the elements of the NBI, the Makati City police criminal investigation unit, the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, the Southern Police Department’s Scene of the Crime Operatives and the Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division of the National Capital Region Police Office.