ACTING as the spokesman of the Odicta family, Rolando Regalado, elder brother of the late Meriam Odicta, had refused to file charges against the killers of the couple who succumbed to fatal gunshot wounds while on their way out of the Caticlan jetty port in Malay, Aklan, last August 29.
“We do not know who the culprits are and we are restrained to do anything until the police investigation is completed,” Regalado said.
The bodies of the slain couple were finally brought home at their residence in Barangay Malipayon, Iloilo City proper on the afternoon of August 31 for relatives, friends and neighbors to pay their last respect.
The regional police office also provided police checkpoints near the Odicta residence and at adjoining Barangay Tanza Esperanza.
Police authorities and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Authority (PDEA) identified Melvin Odicta Sr. as the top high value drug personality not only in Iloilo but in the whole Western Visayas, with reported links to drug lords in Central and Eastern Visayas.
Upon advice of their lawyers, the couple went to Camp Crame last August 25 to see PNP Chief General Ronald de la Rosa but the police chief was in Bacolod on August 25, in Iloilo City on August 26 and in Boracay Island on August 27.
The couple decided to go back to Iloilo and took a roll-on/roll-off vessel from the Batangas port going to Caticlan, Malay, Aklan where a waiting van with their lawyers were waiting outside the jetty port.
Police in Batangas impounded their two vehicles and held the drivers after it was discovered to carry two firearms.
Upon embarking from the ship, unknown killers struck while the couple was walking under the canopy towards the exit area.
A police patrol car brought them to the Malay district hospital where they were pronounced dead on arrival. (LCP/Sunnex)