Mute witness recounts slays

The three boys were beheaded after they were strangled to death. This was how a 22-year-old mute, using sign language, described the brutal beheading of three boys, allegedly by suspects identified as PO2 Dennis Blasco and PO3 Mario Morales, both assigned to the Batasan Hills police station, and their companions.

Police said the suspects allegedly beheaded Kenny Azania, 16, Rolando Popanes, 18 and a still unidentified boy, whose bodies were recovered in a grassy vacant lot in Cresta Verde Subdivision, Sta. Monica, Novaliches, Quezon City last April 16.

Through sign language interpreted by his mother and grandmother, the mute parking attendant told investigators that he could have been the fourth headless victim had he not managed to escape from the killers.

Central Police District director Senior Superintendent Rodolfo Tor said the account of the mute witness corroborated testimonies of seven other witnesses, who surfaced separately at the CPD headquarters and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) last week.

Using the accounts of the witnesses, the Central Police District filed three counts of murder and also attempted murder against the suspects with the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office. Of the three identified suspects, only Morales is in police custody, while Blasco and the others are still at large.

Tor said he has assured the victims’ families of "a fair and transparent" investigation of the case despite the involvement of Quezon City policemen.

In his three-page account, the parking attendant claimed Blasco and Morales picked him up while he was sleeping under the Commonwealth flyover in Barangay Culiat, Quezon City on the night of April 15.

He added that the two policemen brought him to a safehouse in Tandang Sora, where the suspects beat him up black and blue. Before the mauling, he claimed he saw the three victims still alive.

Shortly after beating him up, the parking attendant claimed that the suspects turned to Azania, Popanes and the third unidentified victim and strangled them to death with a rope.

Upon seeing the three already dead, the parking attendant said that a man, identified only as "Hapon," cut off the victims’ heads one after the other with a samurai. The witness said that the policemen then ordered him to clean up the mess.

However, while he was removing bloodstains from the floor, the parking attendant sensed that the policemen were also planning to kill him, apparently to get rid of any witness who could link them to the crime.

Upon seeing a chance, the parking attendant ran for his life and one of the policemen fired at him once but missed. The witness claimed he sought refuge in the house of his uncle.

On April 17 the parking attendant heard about the discovery of the headless bodies, prompting him to surface for fear of his life.