ILOILO – A woman was stripped almost naked, shot twice in the head, stuffed in a sack, then dumped on the side of the road in Barangay Pasil, New Lucena, Iloilo.
The 41-year-old Jonalyn Jaranilla Sucaldito, a fruit vendor from Barangay Nabitasan, Pototan, Iloilo, was found dead early morning yesterday by an itinerant vendor, who immediately alerted a barangay tanod.
She was only wearing a bra and underwear. Her mouth was covered with a duct tape.
Also in the sack was five plastic sachets of suspected shabu and an identification card of Sucaldito.
Whoever dumped Sucaldito taped a cryptic note on the sack. Written in capital letters on a torn brown paper bag, it read: “HAYOP!!! KA JOVAN ABANTAO AT ALYAS SUPAT!!!”
Abantao, a drug group leader in Iloilo City, is currently detained at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City. He has been in detention since 2015.
“Puzzled kami nga amo ina ang nakabutang. Na-mention ang pangalan sang drug personality,” said Police Corporal Robertson Jamandran, investigator of the New Lucena police station.
As this was being written, the police was still ascertaining the ties, if any, of Sucaldito and Abantao.
The Pototan police station had not listed Sucaldito as a drug personality, and neither had the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Region 6.
Sucaldito, a mother of four, was likely killed somewhere else.
“Wala kita may na-recover nga empty bullet shells (in the area where the body was recovered),” Jamandran said.
From what the New Lucena police station so far gathered, Sucaldito left her house on Tuesday past 10 a.m. She was driving her motorcycle.
She stopped in Barangay Rumbang, Pototan near the Iloilo Provincial Hospital, got down from her motorcycle and boarded a red car.
A man was seen taking over the motorcycle and tailed the car.
“Amo na ang last time nga nakita sia nga buhi, basi sa mga witnesses sa area,” said Jamandran.
A 17-year-old daughter of Sucaldito said her mother left their house on Tuesday morning but did not tell them where she was going.
At around 2 p.m., according to the daughter, her mother phoned her.
Sucaldito sounded okay, said her daughter, and her mother reminded her to watch over her younger sibling.
By 6 p.m., Sucaldito had not returned home yet so her daughter texted her and called her. There was no response.
The daughter said her mother had no known enemies.
“Mabuot si Mama,” she stressed.
The daughter also said they don’t know who Abantao was and their mother had never mentioned such a name to them ever.
Last month, Feb. 11, a woman in Iloilo City said to be a live-in partner of Abantao was shot to death inside her store in Barangay Calaparan, Arevalo district.
The 41-year-old Valerie Abantao died of four gunshot wounds.
According to Arevalo police chief, Police Major Chen Tañagras, the gunman was wearing a black jacket, a pair of black pants, and facemask.
After the shooting, the gunman fled toward Barangay Calumpang, Molo district onboard a waiting motorcycle.
The driver of the motorcycle was wearing a pair of short pants and black jacket.
“We are conducting an investigation and coordinating with her family to get more information. Daku mabulig sang pamilya para ma-zero in naton ang real motive. We are entertaining all possible motives,” Tañagras said./PN
