3 yield: We had no role to play
After 10 days, still no sign of Mayor Boniel from Bohol
Police will submit a blanket and a few hair strands to the crime laboratory to find out if these have any connection to the disappearance, nearly two weeks ago, of Bien Unido Mayor Gisela Boniel.
A search team found the items some 36 meters underwater between Caubian and Olango Islands in Lapu-Lapu City, but still no sign of the pilot-mayor’s body.
Also yesterday, the mayor’s personal assistant, Bien Unido town’s human resources (HR) officer, and Bohol Provincial Board Member Niño Rey Boniel’s driver showed up before the police and stressed they had nothing to do with the mayor’s disappearance and presumed death.
The personal assistant and municipal HR officer were among those charged, along with the mayor’s husband Niño Rey, with kidnapping and parricide.
Three suspected cohorts of Bohol Provincial Board Member Niño Rey Boniel surfaced yesterday to deny any involvement in the alleged kidnap-slay of Bien Unido, Bohol Mayor Gisela Boniel.
Edgar Tapere, the driver of Gisela's husband, Bohol Provincial Board Member Niño Rey Boniel, in Bohol, showed up at the Regional Intelligence Division (RID) 7 past 2 p.m. with his family.
"He fears for his life and sought help from us. He is still with us because he was afraid that the board member's men might come back for him and I already assigned a security for him," RID Chief Jonathan Cabal said in a text message.
Cabal said that Tapere revealed that Niño's older brother Jay hid the motorcycle he used to fetch the board member in Punta Engaño early morning last June 7.
"That could qualify him ( Jay) as accessory after the fact that he may be liable for it. The brother now becomes a person of interest," Cabal said.
Tapere said it was his first time to pick up Niño in Punta En- gaño because he usually fetched the latter at Pier 3, Cabal said.
Gisela's personal assistant Brian Sayson and Bien Unido's human resource officer Wilson Hoylar, who were represented by Atty. Inocencio dela Cerna, also told police they are innocent.
"The mayor made me a regular employee and I owe her so much," Hoylar said.
He presented documents to show that he was not with the mayor when she was allegedly killed.
He said the mayor accumulated many absences since last October that her name was no longer on the payroll.
Sayson, for his part, said he was sleeping in the same room as the son of Gisela's best friend Angela Leyson at the dive camp in Bien Unido when armed men barged inside.
He denied hearing any commotion in Room 10, where Gisela and Leyson were staying.
Hoylar and Sayson said they've been worrying about their safety since they were included in the filing of charges for kidnapping and parricide. /