Philippine National Police Chief Guillermo Eleazar met yesterday with the family of murder victim Nadia Casar, promising them that justice would be served.
The 35-year-old Casar was an online jewelry seller from Cavite who was abducted along with her Grab driver on the way back home from Nueva Ecija on July 20.
While the driver was released and was able to identify the kidnappers, the burnt body of Nadia Casar was found in Imelda Valley, Palayan City in the afternoon of August 1.
“First of all, I offer my sincerest condolences to the family of Nadia Casar, and your police force promise a clean, fast, and thorough investigation of the crime, to hold the criminals accountable and punish them,” speaking in Filipino, Eleazar addressed Nadia Casar’s assembled family members in his office in Camp Crame.
Casar and the Grab driver had been kept hostage in a house somewhere in Palayan City, with the driver released in the early morning of July 21. The driver later told investigators from the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG) that he had overheard Casar being instructed to tell her family to pay a ransom in exchange for her freedom.
After chancing on their photos in the police station, the Grab driver subsequently identified three police officers from Nueva Ecija as their kidnappers, while follow-up investigations led to the arrests of two other policemen and two civilians who were also allegedly involved in the crime.
“This kind of acts are unacceptable in our organization. We should be the ones giving protection, and not the ones taking the lives of civilians,” Eleazar told the group, which included Casar’s sister, Mosripa Casar, and relatives Fahad Tambara, Datu Bong Alonto, and Atty. Al Razul Sultan.
The policemen tagged as suspects were Police Staff Sergeant Matias Reyes, assigned at the Sta. Rosa Municipal Police Station in Nueva Ecija; PSSG June Malillin, of the Palayan City Police Station; Police Corporal Julius Alcantara, of the Nueva Ecija Provincial Police Office Drug Enforcement Unit; Police Master Sergeant Rowen Martin, assigned at the Cabanatuan City Police Station; and PSSG Drextemir Esmundo, assigned at the Cabiao Municipal Police Station. The two civilian suspects were identified as Franklin Macapagal and Dario Robarios.
“These suspects were identified by a witness to the crime, so our evidence in bringing a case against them and convicting them is strong,” said Eleazar. “As I first promised, I will personally focus on this case so that we may give justice for the family.”
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