The 19-year-old victim of extrajudicial killing whose decomposing body was found under a Caramoran bridge last July 7, 2024 was allegedly involved in a robbery in Virac last April 2024.
An unimpeachable source informed the Tribune that Sonny Boy Tuquero, whose father identified the body as that of his missing son, was accused of having perpetrated the robbery that occurred at 2 AM of April 23, 2024 in barangay Rawis.
After investigation of the allegations of the robbery victim, a woman whose identity was withheld by the source, the Virac police station filed the complaint with the Provincial Prosecution Office last May 20.
It may be recalled that in the morning of July 7 several boys looking for fish bait noticed a foul smell and found the body of an unidentified man under the Panabananon bridge in Caramoran
The body’s head was wrapped with brown packing tape, with both of his hands and legs tied behind his back.
Residents of Milaviga and Guiamlong near the bridge told the police that the victim was not a resident of their barangays.
The rotting body was later buried at the public cemetery in barangay Inalmasinan, with the police yet to uncover any leads as to the identity of the victim, how he died, those responsible and any possible witnesses to the crime.
Two days later in July 9, a certain Jose Tuquero Jr., a resident of Palnab del Sur, went to the Virac police station and claimed that the dead body found in Caramoran was that of his son, Sonny Boy Tuquero.
He told the police that he recognized his son by the blue Pokemon Go shirt worn by the dead man as it belonged to his wife.
In an interview with the Tribune last week, Tuquero said that he last saw Sonny Boy, who was his son by his first wife from Caramoran, in the evening of June 29, 2024 during the barangay fiesta but the boy left without saying where he was going.
When he did not come back after one or two days as he usually did, Tuquero said he started worrying, adding that the boy did not bring any clothes.
By July 3, four days after Sonny Boy left the house, his father started asking around if the boy had been seen or had showed up somewhere.
“I was not able to sleep and sometimes woke up in cold sweat,” Tuquero told the Tribune.
He shared that the boy, who was raised at Fiat Village when he was young, had just come back from Cavite where he worked making lumpia wrappers for about two months.
Sonny Boy was also a good pool billiards player, had his own pool cue and was entered by his manager in local tournaments, his father said.
At the time he disappeared, his son had with him a necklace, two cellphones, a small bag and a wallet, Tuquero claimed.
He said he didn’t know anyone who had a grudge against his son but he admitted having seen him with an unidentified woman.
Asked about why he did not go to Caramoran upon hearing the news about the decomposing body, Tuquero said he did not have any money for the fare.
“I am angry at his death, how he was tortured and treated like an animal,” he told the Tribune, adding that for now he just wants to have him given a proper burial in Virac.
He is still hoping though that Sonny Boy is still alive and will come back.
The Catanduanes police sent its forensic team last Sunday, July 14, to conduct the exhumation and examination of the cadaver buried at the Inalmasinan public cemetery in order to confirm his identity and determine the cause of death as well as recover any evidence as to the identities of the killers.
According to a local chief executive, there is a strong possibility that that the victim may have been tortured and killed by two or more persons who may have done the same crime before, noting how the body had been trussed up and his face covered by packing tape.
The last extrajudicial killing in the province of Catanduanes was in May 2022 during the Abaca Festival when Viga MSWD Officer Carmel Eubra was shot to death by riding-in-tandem killers in San Isidro Village, Virac while she was driving home after participating in the parade.
Prior to her brazen daylight murder, at least eight other individuals have been killed since businessman Larry Que was shot at the back of the head at San Isidro Village while entering a car insurance office on Dec. 19, 2016.
Five of the killings are considered drug-related while three or four have links to the communist insurgency, based on police reports.