QUEZON CITY — The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has apprehended a former inmate and a corrections officer involved in the kidnap-for-ransom and subsequent murder of a mother and her son in Baesa, Quezon City last June.
According to Philippines News Agency, the suspects, ex-prisoner Raymond David Reyes and Correction Officer I Pio Jonathan Eulalio, were arrested on July 11 and 12 for the murder of 40-year-old Christian Razon Ortega and his 70-year-old mother, Gloria. The investigation revealed that the two men, along with a third conspirator identified as Vergel Olanda, an employee of the victims, orchestrated the crime following a plan developed while Reyes and Eulalio were at the Quezon City Jail.
The sequence of events reconstructed by the authorities indicated that on June 10, the victims were traveling in a white van when the suspects, driving a black SUV, intercepted them in front of Lucas R. Pascual Memorial Elementary School. After a failed escape attempt by Christian, he was shot dead by the suspects, who then kidnapped Gloria, stealing PHP100,000 from her before eventually demanding a PHP5 million ransom. Despite the ransom demand, the decision was later made to kill Gloria, whose body was found in a ravine near a dump site in Barangay Sta. Cruz, Bay, Laguna.
NBI Director Jaime Santiago emphasized the detailed planning behind this brutal crime and assured that justice would be pursued vigorously for the victims and their family.