CEBU, Philippines – Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza has asked the police yesterday to communicate with two persons who claimed to have information about the killers of 17-year-old Karen Kaye Montebon.
This, as the Cebu Provincial Board asked the public to stop sharing the images of the body of Karen, who was brutally killed inside her house in Corinthian’s Subdivision, Sitio Suba-Masulog, Barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu City Tuesday last week.
The PB made the request through a resolution approved during its regular session yesterday. This was after it observed that the images have proliferated in social media.
“Such act (sharing of images) should be discontinued and social media users are urged to delete such images to show respect, not only to the victim but also to the family of the late Ms. Karen Montebon,” read part of the PB resolution.
The body also approved another two resolutions, which condemned the gruesome demise of Montebon and asked the Cebu Provincial Police Office to exert all efforts to apprehend the perpetrators of the brutal slaying of the freshman student.
“The death of Ms. Montebon is symptomatic of the creeping issue of peace and security in the province and the slow deterioration of the moral fiber that uphold the virtue of good will and mutual respect of individual dignity,” the body said.
“This situation necessitates immediate attention and prompt action by the authorities, since there is now greater perception that criminals have no more fear of them (authorities) and that these miscreants believe that they can get away from their nefarious deeds with impunity,” it added.
At the Lapu-Lapu City Hall, Radaza said she received a text message after she announced that the city government is giving a P500,000 reward to those who can catch or point to the teenager’s killer or killers.
“Dili ko ma-satisfy hangtud dili madakpan ang suspect,” Radaza said, referring to the ongoing investigation.
The mayor invited Senior Superintendent Armando Radoc, Lapu-Lapu City Police Office office-in-charge, to her office yesterday morning to inform him about the two persons willing to be informants.
She also asked the acting police chief for updates on the investigation.
As of now, the police are pursuing another three “persons of interest” after the first three got cleared.
Meanwhile, Police Regional Office-7’s Senior Superintendent Rey Lyndon Lawas will ask the national headquarters of the Philippine National Police to send experts in conducting deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) tests of the pieces of evidence found at the crime scene.
“We are now tapping the resources of the PNP organization nationwide. If possible we will request for the expertise of the national headquarters like in conducting the DNA, because we have recovered some evidence that can lead to the identification of the suspect,” he said.
Lawas is the head of the Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) formed by PRO-7 to look into the college student’s death.
As to the three “persons of interest” whom Radoc is pursuing, Lawas said they were the kind of people whom they would want to ask for additional information about Montebon’s death.
“These are persons of interest whom we think can give us information that might lead to the possible suspects. Naa ta nakuha na ebidensya but leading it to the possible suspect, wala pa ta ana,” Lawas said.
He attended the case conference in LCPO yesterday, his first meeting with the SITG after Radoc requested for the creation of a region-wide task force.
“I’m trying to assess and analyze what they have been doing and we will try to see what we can do. Our goal here is to find the suspect,” Lawas told reporters yesterday.
Montebon, a first year accountancy student of the University of San Carlos, was laid to rest in Mactan Island Memorial Garden in Barangay Maribago, Lapu-Lapu City last Sunday.
Radoc stated last Sunday that they already got footages from a subdivision residence and a private establishment’s close circuit television cameras.
He said that contrary to an initial report, the woman who knocked on the door of the victim’s house around 7 a.m. the same day Karen was found dead was not wearing a full-faced helmet.
Footages from surveillance cameras will be enhanced, Radoc said, for the police to know who entered and exited the subdivision on the day the crime happened.
Lawas said several angles are still being considered.
“We are looking at all angles as of now based on our initial conference. Daghan kaayo ta ug gitan-aw na mga anggulo aron makita gyud nato ang tubag sa atong pangutana. There is no conclusion yet,” he added. — /RHM (FREEMAN)