BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – An entire family of four, including two. children, might fave murder charges for the death of its patriarch in an upland village of Kabankalan as the drunk driver of a truck that crashed into a house killing two in Pontevedra town remains in critical condition inside a government hospital.
In Kabankalan, a city at least 100 kilometers south of here, Police Chief Master Sgt. Derreck Capunong who heads the probe into the murder of Leonardo Benigay, 50, said they have no legal basis to detain the suspect, Miguel.
Miguel, an older son of Leonardo admitted to have killed his father using a sledgehammer six months ago after the remains of the older Benigay was found in a shallow grave near their house in Oringao, an upland village of the city.
Capunong said Miguel’s admission was made six months after the murder, and cannot be considered as an arrest within the hot pursuit operation phase.
Police can detain a suspect captured within 72 hours after a crime is committed under Philippine laws, Capunong said.
He said the mother and two children aged below 18 all have knowledge of the killing that was done in their presence.
STILL CRITICAL
In another report, Pontevedra Police chief, Captain Hancel Lumandas told DNX Henry Salgado has yet to be released from the hospital in nearby La Carlota City where he was brought for treatment, possibly a collapsed lung, according to Lumandas.
Salgado, a native of Binalbagan town, was the driver of a 10-wheeler truck that careened into a house in Antipolo village, spilling an estimated 40 tons of sugarcane that destroyed the house and crushed Ermie Cordero and her son, JR.
The child of Salgado, aged eight, told policemen his father had been drinking the entire day before driving early in the morning of 15 August when the incident happened.
