Suspect in murder of retired teacher couple nabbed

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The police and local executives are now in joint custody of the suspect in the murder of an elderly couple, both retired teachers, in Banisilan town in Cotabato before dawn Sunday, October 4.

The suspect, whom police officials and local executives identified only as Rem, in the meantime, was cornered on Tuesday by pursuing policemen in Barangay Guiling in Alamada, Cotabato, not too distant from Barangay Poblacion 2 in Banisilan, where the house of the slain retired teachers, Edwin Daquil Galeno, 81, and the 82-year-old Elsa Bermejo Galeno, is located.

The Galenos were found both lifeless by neighbors inside their house in Purok Matulungin-A in Barangay Poblacion 2, after hearing them yell for help while being attacked by someone, who immediately escaped as they came close.

Residents of Barangay Poblacion 2 in Banisilan had pointed to Rem as responsible for the atrocity, which local executives and Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza immediately condemned.

Investigators from the Banisilan Municipal Police Station and barangay officials who responded to the incident had separately told reporters that Galeno died from a deep stab wound in the chest.

His wife was reportedly hit with something hard on her head, possibly a large piece of wood, that also caused her immediate death.

Police probers and barangay officials said Rem first planned to rob the Galenos of their money kept in their house, but killed them both instead when they resisted and called for help.

Col. Rommel Hojilla, director of the Cotabato Provincial Police Office, said he and his subordinate-officers in the Banisilan Municipal Police Station are grateful to the local executives in the neighboring Banisilan and Alamada towns for helping them locate the culprit.

He said the suspect, also a resident of Banisilan, is now locked in a police detention facility, to be prosecuted for having killed Galenos, both known for being active in community peacebuilding activities.