ILOILO City – A criminal complaint for murder was filed late afternoon yesterday at the Iloilo Provincial Prosecutor’s Office against eight persons for the death of businesswoman Claire Diergos in October last year.
Curiously, however, the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) which filed the case declined to make available copies of the complaint and fudged when asked about the identities of the respondents.
IPPO director Police Colonel Gilbert Gorero offered no coherent explanation for these actions but said they have 10 witnesses who executed sworn affidavits before the complaint was filed.
Diergos was found dead inside her sports utility vehicle on Oct. 26, 2021 in Barangay Inangayan, Santa Barbara, Iloilo. IPPO’s special investigation team, however, determined that Diergos was actually killed in her house at Deca Homes subdivision in adjacent Pavia town.
“We could not yet reveal the respondents’ names because they are only suspects and they are still innocent,” said Gorrero.
It took the IPPO’s special investigation team (SIT) more than two months to file the complaint, citing the lack of credible witnesses.
Autopsy showed Diergos had multiple stab wounds: two on the neck, five on the left hand and two on the right hand. Her neck was slashed.
On Oct. 29, 2021 Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) conducted a luminol acid test in Diergo’s house at Deca Homes Subdivision, Barangay Balabag, Pavia, Iloilo.
Blood traces were spotted on the floor, wall, bed, blanket of Diergo’s 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 leaving Deca Homes at 4:20 a.m. on Oct. 25.
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 Monday morning after.
Sumbong was hired just that Sunday afternoon. She said Diergos, who had a three-year-old daughter, 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.
But the police believed Diergos knew her killers, and they were “no ordinary people.”
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.
The SIT did not disclose if Sumbong was included in the charge sheet or if she was among 10 witnesses./PN
