Danny Chan

The state’s anti-graft trial against former president Joseph Estrada suffered a blow following the murder of a key informant. Marilyn Perez, the secretary to Ilocos Sur Governor Luis (Chavit) Singson, was found murdered, according to Dennis Villa-Ignacio, the state’s special prosecutor.

The victim, Mr Singson’s secretary for 16 years, was shot in the back while walking on Malvar Street in Ermita, Manila, at 6:45 p.m. on Dec. 7.

Investigators from the Western Police District were unable to determine a motive but Senior Inspector Dominador Arevalo, the homicide chief, said the gunman had probably been hired. According to eyewitnesses, the gunman walked behind the secretary, pulled out a .38-caliber revolver and fired three times, hitting her once in the back.

Ms Perez had ostensibly emerged from the LCS building and was headed to Taft Ave., where she rode to her home in Quezon City. Passers-by took her to Philippine General Hospital where doctors declared her dead on arrival.

“This is not a robbery-homicide case even if her cell phone was missing. Her bag and valuables were intact,” Senior Inspector Arevalo said. A relative added Ms Perez had no known enemies. The assailant was described as between 25 and 30 years old, 5-foot-5 to 5-foot-6, slim and dark-skinned.

Mr Villa-Ignacio said Ms Perez was scheduled to refute some of the defense’s most damning testimony at the trial. Mr Singson confirmed she had been visiting the Sandiganbayan to assist the prosecution while relaying developments back to him.

“(Ms Perez) gave us details not known in the subject matter,” Mr Villa-Ignacio said. “She was able to give insights and information which I used to cross-examine the witnesses.” He had earlier insinuated the killing might be linked to the ongoing plunder-and-perjury trial against Mr Estrada and his son Jinggoy Estrada, a senator and former San Juan mayor. But a spokesperson for Mr Estrada blamed Mr Singson for the death.

“What’s the motive of President Estrada? He is winning the lawsuit. He has no motive, no criminal tendencies, no homicidal impulse like Chavit Singson,” Didagen Dilangalen told a local newspaper. Jinggoy Estrada, said his father was unjustly linked to the killing because the governor had accused the Estradas of receiving jueteng kickbacks.

“If they would put the blame on us, I don’t think that is proper. We have nothing to do with it,” the senator said while extending his condolences to Ms Perez’s family.

He also said his family lacked a history of murdering people, unlike Mr Singson, and noted that the Ilocos Sur governor was a suspect in the murder of Bingbong Crisologo’s father and of Agustin Chan, an Ilocos Sur auditor.

“Definitely, we don’t have a criminal mind,” he said. “He’s (Mr Singson) the only one with a motive.”

Mr Singson, whose allegations that the Estradas received payoffs from jueteng operators precipitated the actor-turned-president’s ouster in 2001, said Ms Perez was loyal, trustworthy, committed, had no enemies and was even reluctant to testify in his favor.

“She could have been mistaken for Emma Lim,” Mr Singson told the press. Ms Lim, another secretary for Mr Singson, testified at Mr Estrada’s impeachment trial that she delivered P5 million in jueteng payments to his Malacanang office and that she had collected jueteng money from Jinggoy Estrada’s San Juan mayoral office.

Mr Singson speculated that Ms Lim avoided the LCS building because men had supposedly been asking about her, leaving only Ms Perez to report for work.

“Maybe they sent a hired killer for Lim, whom [the gunman] did not know, and he was told the Perez was my secretary,” he said.

In a telephone interview with a local newspaper, Ms Lim admitted receiving death threats and that her colleague’s murder made her fearful.

“I am feeling very nervous,” she said. “I am trying to go back to a normal life,” she said, adding she was living in a safehouse and her movements were limited for security reasons.

Mr Estrada’s spokesperson said Ms Perez had sent feelers to the defense team to testify against Mr Singson.

“The truth is, we lost a vital witness,” Mr Dilangalen said. “Villa-Ignacio’s claim that the victim was to be used by the prosecution as a rebuttal witness was just an afterthought.”

Malacanang meanwhile appealed to both the prosecution and the defense to refrain from fingering the other side.

“The motive is yet to be established so we appeal to the public to refrain from speculations and await the official report of the investigation,” Ignacio Bunye, the president’s press secretary, said in a statement two days after the shooting. He added that the Philippine National Police would likely solve the killing quickly.


Copyright ©2005 Danny Chan. About the author