Senator Raffy Tulfo has offered P500,000 each to the families of the three shooting victims in Taguig City on August 21, one of them an overseas Filipino worker (OFW), after the suspect, a former Philippine Navy officer, surrendered to him at his office in Mandaluyong on Thursday.
Tulfo assured the suspect, Julian Paningbatan Jr., that he will be treated appropriately, but added that nothing would justify the crime he committed.
“Rest assured we will attend to this case to ensure that justice will be served and the case to run smoothly in the court,” Tulfo said in a statement on Friday.
The police also confirmed that Paningbatan has four outstanding warrants of arrest issued in the cities of Manila and Pasay for robbery with violence and carnapping.
Paningbatan confessed to the shooting of his former girlfriend, 25-year-old OFW Angelica Belina of Calapan, Oriental Mindoro; food delivery rider Mark Ian Desquitado, 35, of Barangay Fort Bonifacio, Taguig; and Tashane Joshua Branzuela, 22, a student and resident of the same village.
Witnesses told probers they heard successive burst of gunfire at around 3 a.m.
They said they later saw the victims slumped on the ground, with gunshot wounds outside the transient house.
Belina and Desquitado died on the spot while Branzuela was declared dead upon arrival at the Taguig-Pateros District Hospital.
The suspect said he killed Belina out of anger over past issues with her.
But Tulfo said he found the motive for the killing as unacceptable.
To help with burial fees and other necessary expenses, the senator vowed to give P500K each to the families of the three victims.