PNP files murder raps vs 2 ex-cops, 3 others

Beauty queen, boyfriend slay

MANILA, Philippines — Five suspects, including two former police officers, were charged with murder in connection with the killing of beauty queen Geneva Lopez and her Israeli boyfriend Yitshak Cohen.

The Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) yesterday filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ) two counts of murder against the five people, whom the agency refused to name.

The five suspects are also facing charges of conspiracy for allegedly holding “a meeting wherein they planned the killing” of Lopez and Cohen, PNP-CIDG legal division chief Col. Thomas Valmonte said in an interview after the filing of charges at the DOJ.

Valmonte said two of the suspects allegedly shot the couple while one was in charge of the disposal and burial of the bodies.

Police are looking into a dispute over a plot of land in Tarlac as a possible motive for the murders. Valmonte said the suspects pawned the land to the couple.

“The respondents wanted to retrieve the papers of the land but the victims refused since they wanted their money to be returned to them first,” he said.

The PNP earlier said it is looking at former policeman Michael Guiang as the mastermind of the murders since he mortgaged a property to Lopez but refused when the beauty queen wanted to claim the land.

Lopez and her boyfriend were reported missing on June 22. They were last seen on June 21 when they drove to Capas.

Their decomposing bodies were found at a quarry site in Barangay Sta. Lucia, Capas on July 6.

Autopsy reports showed Lopez was shot in the back and thigh while Cohen had gunshot wounds in his chest and near the armpit.