In a press conference Monday night, Colonel Albert Lupaz, city director of the Davao Police, identified the suspects as Dennis Roy P. Panzan, Kent Laurence Metegreto Espinosa, Renato Ali Bayansao, and one John Doe.
Lupaz said the identity of said suspects was based on the narration of the two witnesses.
Lupaz, who is also the commander of SITG said Panzan and Espinosa went missing after they were allegedly taken by unidentified persons last May 27, 10 days after Bragas was found dead.
Panzan, however, was rescued by Talomo Police Station in Matina Pangi in the morning of May 29 but declared dead an hour later at the Davao Adventist Hospital.
According to Lupaz, a separate investigation is currently underway about the alleged “kidnapping” of Panzan and Espinosa, which resulted in the death of Panzan.
Bayansao, meanwhile, was the driver of the yellow Ombak (similar to a tricycle) where Bragas boarded.
Based on the SITG Bragas link analysis diagram, Espinosa poses as another passenger. Panzan, was the one who punched Bragas face and the unidentified suspect hit her in the victim’s stomach until she became unconscious, based on the testimonies of the witnesses.
Bayansao, on the other hand, is now in the custody of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-Davao after he was arrested in a drug buy-bust operation by the anti-narcotics operatives, including National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on May 28 at Purok 8 in Calinan.
Panzan, a meat shop owner, was a neighbor of the Bragas family.
NBI director Lawyer Arcelito Albao said Bayansao was pinpointed as one of the suspects based on the evidence and documents, to include the linkages that point to him.
Major Neil M. Vistar, Calinan Chief of Police said Bragas believes that the suspects raped and murdered Bragas at the place where the victim’s cadaver was found in a banana plantation in Purok 6, Barangay Dacudao, Calinan about eight hours after she was reported missing at 12:30 a.m.
Based on the result of the autopsy examination conducted by the medico-legal, it showed that the cause of Bragas death was “asphyxia by manual strangulation.”
The examination also found “recent genital trauma” which confirmed that the victim was raped.
Captain Lean Marquez, legal officer of the Davao City Police Office, believed that the case they filed against the suspects is strong based on the evidence they have gathered, testimonies of the witnesses, as well as video footage from the CCTV camera.
“These are the pieces of evidence that will prove that those persons were really involved in the commission of crime,” Marquez said.
Photo from DCPO