Story and photo by Henry Empeño
OLONGAPO CITY—Mayor Rolen C. Paulino has expressed frustration over procedural bottlenecks that allegedly allowed the primary suspect in a murder case here to slip out of the country just two days after committing the alleged crime.
In a news conference at the city hall here on Tuesday, Paulino confirmed that Jonathan Dewayne Ciocon Viane, an American citizen who was identified as the mastermind in the abduction and killing of 23-year-old Karieces “Aica” Mojica, has fled on Monday, taking Eva Air Flight BR272 to Taipei with a connecting flight to the United States.
“Our latest information is that he’s now headed to Alaska,” Paulino said.
He told the BusinessMirror that he has been coordinating with back channel contacts from the US Fugitive Services on the movement of Viane, but that said cooperation was strictly informal since local authorities have yet to issue a warrant of arrest for the suspect.
“They know he’s already in their area of jurisdiction, but they cannot do anything without a warrant,” Paulino said.
“Nababagalan nga kami sa proseso,” Paulino said, adding that he and Zambales Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. have been doing all they could do to facilitate the investigation so that a warrant of arrest and a hold order can be issued against Viane.
At the same time, Paulino announced that he has put up a P50,000 reward money for any information leading to the arrest of suspected accomplice Niño de la Cruz, a worker at the Hanjin shipyard in Subic, Zambales. Both Viane and de la Cruz are said to be residents of Subic, Zambales.
According to Paulino, initial investigation pointed to Viane as having met with Mojica on the night of July 24 at a gasoline station in Olongapo City.
De la Cruz was identified as the person who was inside a rented car that Viane drove when he met with Mojica.
At around 6:30 a.m. the following day, two farmers from San Narciso town in Zambales found Mojica’s body at the Santo Tomas river dike in San Felipe, Zambales, about an hour’s drive north of Olongapo.
Police investigators said in a report that the victim bore three gunshot wounds on the head, and that her torso was partly burned. Her hands were bound with black plastic strap and a bonnet covered her face.
The police also recovered at the crime scene three spent shells and two slugs from a 9-mm handgun.
Paulino said the investigators were initially stumped over the killing, but a witness who turned out to be a friend of Viane’s surfaced on Sunday, saying the suspect had confessed to her about the killing.
Over the weekend, social media was abuzz with reports that Mojica, a resident of Barangay Santa Rita in this city, has been suspected by Viane of feeding information to Viane’s US-based wife regarding his treatment of their 4-year-old son in his custody. Mojica was reportedly a friend of Viane’s wife.
Following these revelations, Paulino said local authorities mounted a manhunt—to no avail.
“We investigated every lead, every reported sighting of the suspects, but they all turned out negative,” Paulino said. “Then, we got the information that he has left the country.”
Paulino said that the family of the witness has also expressed apprehension over her safety, noting that she has not yet been placed under the government’s witness protection program.
“But we have already detailed some undercover assets to cover her security,” Paulino added.
Paulino added that authorities are hoping to break the case soon, as the manhunt for de la Cruz has been intensified.