INQUIRER FILES
SHARIFF SAYDONA MUSTAPHA, MAGUINDANAO DEL SUR 鈥� The remains of three goat dealers who went missing in this town 23 days ago and whose bodies were found on Saturday, May 31, buried in a shallow grave in a village here are being brought to Manila through the Philippine Air Force (PAF) C-130 flight from Awang Airport, police said.
John Luis Olarte, 22; Gerry Olarte, 31; and Ronald Alumno, 47, were last seen on May 11 inside a white van delivering hybrid goats in Barangay Linangantan, Mamasapano, adjacent to this town.
Relatives who contacted them last at 7 p.m. that day posted on their Facebook two days later, appealing for help because they went missing.
It was only on Saturday, May 31, when a villager in this town鈥檚 Barangay Nabundas alerted the police about an 鈥渦npleasant odor鈥� in their place. They helped the police dig the ground and found three bodies, hogtied and with gunshot wounds.
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The bodies, identified to be those of the missing goat dealers from Batangas province, were expected to arrive in Manila later today, Monday, on the PAF C-130 flight from Awang airport in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, said Capt. Guiseppe Tamayo, Maguindanao del Sur police provincial office spokesperson.
Brig. Gen. Romeo Macapaz, regional director of the police regional office in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, had ordered a thorough and impartial investigation on the circumstances surrounding the death of the three goat dealers.
鈥淓fforts are focused on determining the cause of death, identifying those responsible and collecting substantial evidence to ensure that the perpetrators are held criminally liable and brought to justice in accordance with the law,鈥� Macapaz said as he assured the families of the victims 鈥渢hat justice will be pursued with utmost urgency diligence and resolve.鈥�
Macapaz said police investigators had identified five persons of interest. According to the investigators, the victims were last seen speaking to a local who, along with four others, reportedly 鈥渞obbed them and brought them to an area in Barangay Nabundas.鈥�
They were then shot, according to police probers who asked not to be named for lack of authority to speak.
Police, however, are still searching for the people to whom the three had sold their hybrid goats. Earlier, relatives said the three were with a certain Khomeni Bansuan Tan, when they were last in contact with them at 7 p.m. in Barangay Lintanganan, Mamasapano, a town just adjacent to Shariff Saydona Mustapha, where their bodies were found in Barangay Nabundas. /das