ILOILO – Members and lawyers of the special investigation team (SIT) will meet on Wednesday with the provincial prosecutor’s office to present the case folder on the death of businesswoman Claire Diergos.
“If it passes the standard of the prosecutor maybe the case will automatically be filed,” said Police Senior Master Sergeant Francisco Lindero, spokesperson.
“Depende sa assessment, if may kulang ibalik naman naton ang folder kag idugang ang needed materials,” he added.
Lindero did not disclose how many suspects and witnesses the SIT has.
The 36-year-old Diergos of Barangay Balabag, Pavia town was found dead late in the afternoon of Oct. 26 in her sport utility vehicle abandoned in Barangay Inangayan, Santa Barbara town.
An autopsy showed she had multiple stab wounds: two on the neck, five on the left hand and two on the right hand. Her throat was slashed.
On Oct. 29, the police’s scene of the crime operatives (SOCO) immediately conducted a luminol acid test in Diergo’s house.
Blood traces were spotted on the floor, wall, bed, blanket of her three-year-old daughter, table, wall of the comfort room, Diergos’ dressing room, and the cover of the washing machine.
A closed-circuit television footage showed Diergos’ Montero Sport was seen coming out of Deca Homes at 4:20 a.m. on Oct. 25 and the following day it was found in Santa Barbara.
One of the first persons the police invited for questioning was Diergos’ newly-hired house help Rodelyn Sumbong of New Lucena, Iloilo.
She last saw Diergos alive late night of Oct. 24 (a Sunday), she told the police, and hadn’t seen her since waking up the following morning.
Sumbong was hired just that Sunday afternoon. She said Diergos fetched her at the transport terminal in Barangay Tagbak, Jaro, Iloilo City and they had dinner in Oton town before going home to Deca Homes around 8 p.m.
If Sumbong were to be believed, she went to sleep soundly that Sunday night after Diergos told her to just leave the gate unlocked.
She denied having anything to do with the killing.
The police believed Diergos knew her killers, and they were “no ordinary people.”
More than two persons were likely behind the crime – one driving Diergos’ SUV and the other the getaway vehicle.
A P500,000 bounty is being offered to credible witnesses – P300,000 from Diergos’ friends and business partners and P100,000 each from the municipal government of Pavia and the provincial government of Guimaras, Diergo’s home province./PN
