Man confesses to killing HK man in April; body exhumed

MAASIN CITY—The body of a Hong Kong national who has been dead since April was exhumed yesterday shortly before police took custody of the man who confessed to killing the victim.

The remains of Fung Che Kwok, 61, were dug from a shallow grave on a hilly site here. Marites Barring Fung, the victim’s wife, identified the remains.

Marites, 31, said her husband, said to be a classmate of Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan, was killed by Joenard Labor Mangmang, who was Marites’ live-in partner before she met Fung and with whom Marites maintained a relationship unknown to Fung.

Police said robbery could be the motive for killing Fung since the Hong Kong national was believed to be awash with cash when he arrived in Maasin on April 8, which was also the day he was killed.

Shortly after Fung’s body was exhumed, police took Mangmang, 30, into custody. Mangmang, police said, confessed to taking part in killing Fung and pointed to a certain Marlon Prenio as the mastermind.

Police quoted Mangmang as saying he and Prenio buried Fung in a hilly site in Barangay Libhu, about 2 km from Marites’ home.

Mangmang told the Inquirer it was Prenio who shot Fung. “I was not the brain of the crime,” Mangmang said. Marites said she married Fung in 2009 but didn’t tell her new husband about her relationship with Mangmang which started in 2004.

Fung had gone to Maasin twice and his third visit on April 8 was his last. Marites said that was also the last time she talked to Fung by phone.

When Fung went missing after April 8, Marites said she tried to call him up but there was no answer.

“I knew my husband was killed on his arrival on April 8,” Marites told the Inquirer.

She said Fung had money with him to invest on an apartment and a poultry farm.

Marites said she decided to report the killing to police seven months after the crime to get back at Mangmang with whom she’s been fighting after Fung’s killing.