Geneva Lopez, 27, and Yitshak Cohen, 37, already had plans to get married when they were killed on June 21. - PHOTOS: GENEVA LOPEZ/FACEBOOK
MANILA (The Straits Times/ANN): The police in the Philippines have arrested two former policemen for their alleged involvement in the horrific murder of a beauty queen and her Israeli fiance over a land deal gone sour.
The two suspects – Michael Guiang and Rommel Abuzo – were presented to reporters at a press briefing on July 8. They were charged for the killing of Ms Geneva Lopez, 27, and her partner, Mr Yitshak Cohen, 37.
Lopez, a contender in the 2023 national beauty pageant Mutya ng Pilipinas, and Mr Cohen were last seen alive on June 21.
Their decomposing bodies were found on July 6 in a quarry in Capas town, in Tarlac province, 100km north of the capital Manila. The burnt shell of the sport utility vehicle they were last seen in was recovered days earlier on June 24.
Major-General Leo Francisco, head of the National Police’s Criminal and Detection Group, at the July 8 briefing said investigations showed that the two were shot by Guiang and Abuzo over a land dispute.
Guiang was dismissed from police service in 2020 and Abuzo in 2019, according to Interior Minister Benjamin Abalos.
Maj-Gen Francisco said Guiang had pawned a parcel of land he owned to Ms Lopez in 2021. When he asked her to return the property so that he could sell it to a buyer, she refused. She wanted to take ownership of the land.
Guiang asked to meet Ms Lopez on June 21, supposedly to settle the matter. But when she showed up with Mr Cohen, Guiang and Abuzo were said to have shot and killed the couple.
“It was a planned activity... Guiang and Abuzo had discussed what they would do to this couple. So there was that plan to kill this couple,” Maj-Gen Francisco said.
He said a key witness came forward and provided details that led to the discovery of Ms Lopez’s and Mr Cohen’s remains and the subsequent arrest of Guiang and Abuzo.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that the witness told investigators that Guiang instructed him to drive the couple’s SUV, and that he was shocked when he saw two bodies in the back seat.
He said, though terrified, he did as he was told and drove the SUV to the quarry where the bodies were buried. He then set the vehicle ablaze by the side of a road.
Lopez and Cohen had been living together in Angeles city, near Capas, for seven years and the two had planned on getting married, Mr Cohen’s brother, Mr Yaniv Cohen, told the Ynet news site in Israel.
Yaniv Cohen said he remembered his brother talking to their sister just before he disappeared, but that he did not mention a meeting with Guiang.
“(Maybe he thought) it wasn’t anything special. He didn’t see any danger in going to this meeting,” he said. - The Straits Times/ANN
