Bohol mayor’s body not in Talibon: police
A lawyer who represents the other alleged cohorts of Bohol Provincial Board Member Niño Rey Boniel cautioned the police on their call for the other suspects to surrender.
Lawyer Inocencio Dela Cerna, in a text message, said that some statements of the police are putting his clients’ lives in danger.
“I caution the police and the Regional Intelligence Division chief in their call for them to surrender as the four are undergoing regular preliminary investigation,” Dela Cerna said.
There has been no arrest warrants issued yet, Dela Cerna said.
“If they insist on arresting my clients, we will be filing the necessary administrative cases, as well as cases for the violation of the anti-graft and corrupt prac- tices act,” he added.
Senior Supt. Jonathan Cabal, RID chief, said that his call for surrender was for the suspected cohorts to clear their names as they were only used as “pawns.”
“We cannot be cowed nor stymied by this veiled threat by these enterprising lawyers. We are still in pursuit operations as we never ceased in going after every conspirator of this dastardly crime. Their flip-flopping antics before the prosecutors and the Regional Trial Court that issued the writ of habeas corpus only shows their fear for their client’s guilt,” Cabal said in a text message.
Meanwhile, the Bien Unido Police Station found that the rumors that the body of their missing mayor, Gisela Bendong-Boniel, was found in Nocnocan Island, Talibon, Bohol, were false.
Police Senior Insp. Librado Bigcas, chief of the Bien Unido police, encouraged the public to refrain from spreading wrong information on the social media.
“Our personnel, both in Bien Unido and Talibon, verified the reports and these turned out negative. Before you post it in social media, it would be better to report it to the authorities,” Bigcas said.
Two fishermen allegedly found a darkened corpse wrapped in a net, which emitted a foul smell in the waters surrounding Nocnocan.
However, when police and the disaster units of Bien Unido scoured the waters, there was no sign of the body. /