Murder raps filed vs retired judge's killers
DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines – Murder charges were filed yesterday against six suspects in the killing of an 80-year-old former judge Saturday night.
Corazon Merrera, mother of Vice Mayor Pete Merrera of Binmaley town, Pangasinan, was stabbed several times in her room at Trinidad Subdivision in this city.
Superintendent Romeo Caramat Jr, city police chief, told The STAR that one of the helpers of the victim confessed knowledge of the crime that led the police to arrest of at least four of the suspects.
The four suspects who were arrested and charged with murder are Christian Benedict Lagatao, 20, of Barangay Parayao and John-John Basa, 22, of Barangay Basing both from Binmaley town; and Jeriel Cadelenia and Felipe Quilloge, 47, both from Dumaguete City.
Murder charges were also filed against Michael de Guzman and Jacob Mendiola, who remain at large.
Caramat said the murder is considered an inside job with robbery as the main motive. However, he said there was no sign of forcible entry in any of the doors.
He said the victim lived alone at the second floor of her residence while his helpers sleep at the first floor. She was into several businesses, one of them in construction, the police chief said.
“There is no other way for the suspects to escape except to go down the first floor and it would be impossible that any commotion would be unheard or unnoticed by the helpers if the perpetrator was an outsider,” Caramat said.
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