Bulacan massacre suspect tests negative for illegal drugs

Was the suspect behind the gruesome massacre of a family in Bulacan high on drugs when he committed the heinous crime?

The Philippine National Police (PNP) says otherwise.

Contrary to Carmelino “Miling” Navarro Ibañes’ confession of raping and killing his victims under the influence of drugs, his drug tests came back negative for illegal substances.

“Si Ibañes ay napa-drug test na natin kahapon. At nag-negative yung result ni Ibañes sa drug tests, within 24 hours nag-negative siya,” PNP Region 3 director C/Supt. Aaron Aquino said in a GMA News report.

(Ibañes underwent a drug test yesterday and it came out negative. Within 24 hours, he tested negative.)

“Chineck ko sa chemist kung ano yung mga rason kung bakit nagne-negative after 24 hours use of drugs, ang sabi niya, most likely mas mabilis ang metabolism ni Ibañes or yung quality ng in-intake niya ay masyadong maliit or yung quality naman ng shabu ay hindi ganon ka-concentrate nung ginamit niya or nagpapawis siya o madalas siyang umiihi kaya talagang medyo nag-negative siya sa drug test,” Aquino explained.

(I checked with the chemist about the possible reasons why a user would test negative 24 hours after using drugs. The chemist said Ibañes’ metabolism is likely faster than normal or he only used a small amount of drugs or maybe the quality of the meth he took wasn’t concentrated or he sweats a lot or urinate frequently. So maybe that’s why he tested negative in the drug test.)

Despite the negative results, Aquino reassured that this will not weaken their case against the suspect.

“Yung chemist naman namin ay may kanya-kanyang explanation kung bakit nagne-negative. It doesn’t mean pag nagne-negative ka ay hindi ka drug user kasi pinagtapat ni Ibañes na noon ay regular user siya na halos araw-araw,” Aquino said.

(Our chemists have their own explanations why it turned out negative. It doesn’t mean that if you tested negative then you’re not a user, since Ibañes himself confessed that he was a regular user before — almost daily.)

He adds, “Pero the past month eh, once a week na lang daw siya gumagamit, so ito rin yung rason kung kaya madaling mawala yung droga sa katawan ‘pag occasionally ka na lang nagtete-take ng drugs mas madaling mawala sa system ang droga.”

(But in the past month, he said he only used drugs once a week, so this could also be the reason why the drugs were flushed out of his body. If you only take drugs occasionally, it will be removed from your system faster.)

Ibañes was arrested on June 28, Wed, and immediately confessed to raping two women before killing them and three other children. He said he was high when he committed the crime. The inconsistencies to his testimony includes telling the authorities that he acted alone, but later on named two accomplices: ‘Tony’ and ‘Inggo’.