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POLICE were frustrated by the failure of the relatives of the alleged members of the swindling group, who were killed in an ambush, to cooperate with the investigation to identify the assailants.
Senior Insp. Mario Monilar said that relatives of couple Josemias and Evelyn Magno never showed up in his office and refused to give their statements to police investigators.
The witnesses in the ambush also refused to cooperate with the police, said Monilar, chief of the homicide section of the Cebu City Police Office.
Last Wednesday, four relatives of the Magno couple silently claimed the victim's bodies and brought them to Cagayan de Oro City.
Monilar said his investigators went to the funeral homes but they were not entertained by the couple's relatives.
?There were indications that they were not seeking justice for what happened to the couple,? Monilar said.
The Magno couple together with Medase Castro were on board a van when they were ambushed and killed by three unidentified gunmen on motorcycles.
Evelyn Magno went to fetch her husband and Castro, who were just released from the city jail in barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City after posting the bail.
Josemias Magno and Castro were earlier arrested in an entrapment operation for swindling an old woman.
Police said they were part of a ?Budol-Budol,? a syndicated swindling gang who had victimized a number of people in Central Visayas.
Retired Philippine Air Force Master Sergeant Henry Comandao, the driver and registered owner of the van they were riding, was wounded and was still confined in a private hospital in the city.
He said police were hoping Castro's relatives would cooperate with the investigation.
Castro's body was still at the hospital because no one has claimed it yet. /Correspondent Chito Aragon
