Drunken boast leads cops to suspect in murder of DFA exec

A drunken boast may have provided police with the key to solve the murder of Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Alicia Ramos inside her Makati City residence last month.

Barely two weeks after Ramos’ murder last April 24, police investigators faced a brickwall until one of the suspects — 24-year-old Joel Ablay — made the mistake of boasting during a drinking spree last May 4 about his involvement in a robbery with homicide in Barangay Palanan.

While under the influence of liquor, Ablay claimed the victim was a sister of former President Fidel Ramos.

One of Ablay’s drinking buddies, however, was an "asset" or informer working for the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and was aware of Ramos’ slaying.

The informer contacted his "handler" at the NBI, who immediately coordinated with Task Force Alicia, which was created to bring Ramos’ killers to justice.

A joint NBI and police team arrested Ablay, earlier identified only as "Dodong," last Thursday at Barangay Wawa in Rodriguez (formerly Montalban), Rizal. He confessed to playing a role in Ramos’ murder.

Ablay will be presented to the media at Camp Crame today by NBI director Reynaldo Wycoco, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Arturo Lomibao, Metro Manila police chief Deputy Director General Avelino Razon Jr., Southern Police District director Chief Superintendent Wilfredo Garcia and other Task Force Alicia officials.

Ablay named his accomplices as Roberto Lumagui, alias "Obet" and the alleged mastermind, as well as two others identified only as "Jun" and "Michael."

He said Lumagui had hatched the plan to rob Ramos and her younger sister, Leticia, 61. Weeks before the crime, Lumagui had hired them to do some extension work on the Ramos residence, he added.

Police are still trying to determine whether Lumagui, an ex-convict and neighbor of the Ramos sisters, is a drug addict.

Ablay said Lumagui gave him P700, two cameras and a cellular phone as his share of the loot. Lumagui had entrusted the cameras and the phone to Danny Dakutanan, who was supposed to sell them.

Task Force Alicia members arrested Dakutanan yesterday at the Laperal Compound behind the Loyola Chapels in Guadalupe, Makati City. He yielded peacefully.

Razon said the task force is still conducting follow-up operations to catch Lumagui and his cohorts at a number of their known safehouses, but failed to bag them.

Meanwhile, the PNP Crime Laboratory has asked help from two Japanese experts in examining two sets of fingerprints forwarded to them by Task Force Alicia.

Chief Superintendent Ernesto Belen, who heads the facility, said the first two sets of fingerprints do not match the three fingerprints lifted from the crime scene. Two other samples are still being processed.

"We requested the help of two Japanese experts to speed up our processes," he said. The experts, who belong to the Japanese International Cooperative Agency, are in the country to train personnel from the Armed Forces of the Philippines in DNA testing.

Belen said they are still examining saliva samples taken from a cigarette butt and bloodstains on a long-sleeved t-shirt recovered from the crime scene. — With Cecille Suerte Felipe