KORONADAL CITY, Philippines — Illegal recruiters could be responsible for the brutal murder of seven missing persons whose bodies were exhumed from a shallow grave on Sunday in Barangay Karkum in Sapad town in Lanao del Norte.
Relatives had told reporters and police investigators on Tuesday that the victims, Joselito Gaviola, Marly Gaviola, Elvie Lenara, Jomar Lenara, Jopay Lenara, Epifanio Lenara Sr. and Epifanio Lenara Jr., were recruited for work by men who spoke to contacts via mobile phones in the Maranao vernacular.
The suspects had reportedly collected P7,000 from each of them as initial job placement fee, according to members of sources privy to how they dealt with their “recruiters” who promised them good paying jobs in Cagayan De Oro City and in Cebu City.
Major Alibsar Daraba, chief of the Sapad municipal police, said on Tuesday that it is apparent that the victims were abducted somewhere outside of Lanao del Norte and brought to Barangay Karkum where they were shot one after another with a .45 caliber pistol and buried together in a shallow grave.
The victims were residents of Margossatubig town in Zamboanga del Sur. Relatives had told police probers that they were fetched by their recruiters in Pagadian City last Friday.
“We are investigating this incident along with our counterparts in the Margossatubig Municipal Police Station,” Daraba said.
Still unidentified men from a hill overlooking the spot where the cadavers of the seven victims were found fired assault rifles overhead while police forensic experts were sifting through the scene.
“There were automatic gunshots so we moved out of the area immediately taking with us the cadavers of the seven victims,” Daraba said.