Suspects in boy’s gruesome Isabela kidnap-slay known

By Joan Capuna

SANTIAGO CITY, Isabela – The police in this region’s premier city have identified the suspects in the kidnap-slay of an 11-year-old boy found floating in a canal here on March 7, authorities said. 

However, police investigators sought not to reveal any further details so as not to prejudice ongoing efforts to arrest the suspects behind the kidnapping and gruesome killing of Christian Jay Bulos, a

Grade 6 pupil from the Catholic Church-run La Sallete Elementary School here.

According to Chief Supt. Ameto Tolentino, Cagayan Valley police director, the Santiago City police office under Senior Supt. Wilhelm Barlis, has reported to him that it has several leads on possible suspects in the boy’s killing, which has already generated public outcry from the Church, local officials and business sector as well as residents here.

“They just don’t want to reveal further details so as not to preempt or prejudice operations leading to the eventual arrest of the suspects,” Tolentino said.

The vehicle used in the boy’s abduction, he said, has also been identified by the police here, which is one of the major leads now being used by investigators to eventually pin the suspects down. 
Sources, including a police officer, who asked not to be named, said the body of Bulos, a resident, of Purok 4, Barangay Rosario here, had been so beaten up and strangled with an aluminum wire that his eyes even popped out when it was found by farmers while stuffed in a white grains sack in a canal in Baluarte several days ago.

“Colonel Barlis had reported to me last Saturday March 8 saying his men are now working on the details relating to the suspects pending their arrest,” Tolentino said.

Aside from this, Tolentino said further details regarding the incident would be revealed to media “once the case has been concretized with the arrest of at least one of the suspects.” 

The boy had been missing since March 3 after failing to take an examination in school and to go home, sources said.

The boy’s father, said to be a businessman, was still in shock over his son’s killing. The boy’s mother works overseas.

The boy’s grandmother confirmed seeing a ransom note from the kidnappers demanding P500,000, contrary to reports of a P2-million ransom demand.

The Buloses, who reside in Barangay Rosario, negotiated a lower ransom, and the kidnappers agreed to P250,000 to be dropped at a Unioil gasoline station along Daang Maharlika here.
“We were promised that my grandchild would be released unharmed,” the boy’s grandmother said.

However, reports said the Buloses managed to raise only P100,000, which they left at the payoff site. This reportedly angered the kidnappers, prompting them to kill the boy.

The boy’s brutal killing has generated a public outcry here, with school authorities expressing fear that other students might suffer the same fate.