Army corporal tagged in Pasig twin slay

An Army corporal, who reported to the police the killing of his live-in partner and their housemaid in Pasig City last Tuesday, has turned out to be the prime suspect in the crime.

Cpl. Gilbert Mariano vehemently denied his role in the brutal slaying of his live-in partner Shirley Canillo, 30 and their housemaid, Joan Arnaiz, 17, but Chief Superintendent Rolando Sacramento, director of the Eastern Police District (EPD), said they have sufficient evidence to prove his guilt.

At 6:30 p.m. last Tuesday, Mariano alias "Oscar Lizona," called up the Pasig City police claiming he found Canillo in a pool of blood inside the master’s bedroom. She was stabbed twice in the back and sustained a bullet wound in the head. The body of Arnaiz was found nearby.

The maid was hogtied and on her knees and shot twice in the back.

First to arrive at the victim’s residence on Jupiter street, Maryland Subdivision in Nagpayong, Barangay Pinagbuhatan were elements of the Scene of the Crime Operations (SOCO) team. They lifted fingerprints and other evidence at the crime scene.

Sacramento said when police probers arrived, Mariano claimed he merely found the bodies of his live-in partner and their maid.

He claimed three men were out to kill him and he was lucky not to be around when they came and they vented their ire on Canillo and Arnaiz.

According to Mariano, the P300,000 cash kept by Canillo was missing.

However, Sacramento said his men recovered P100,000 from the pocket of Mariano’s bloodstained shirt. The suspect could not explain how he got the money.

Mariano led police to a residential area in Caloocan City, where he claimed the three men were in hiding but the operations yielded negative results.

Sacramento ordered Mariano to be subjected to a drug test amid suspicions that he was a drug user. He is confined at the Pasig City police detention center. – Non Alquitran