By Victor Reyes and Ashzel Hachero
PNP chief Guillermo Eleazar yesterday belied allegations the PNP is delaying a parallel probe by the National Bureau of Investigation on the death of painter Bree Jonson.
Eleazar also said the internal organs of Jonson, 30, are intact in response to allegations made by the Jonson family over the weekend that her organs were not turned over by the PNP to the NBI for examination.
Earlier reports quoted lawyer Maria Moreni Salandanan as saying that Jonson’s “major organs are missing and the PNP claims that they only got sample slices and a court order is needed to secure its release for the NBI.”
Eleazar assured the Jonson family that the is “PNP is not causing any unreasonable delay in the process of investigating Jonson’s death,” adding the PNP “is just as committed as Bree’s family to finding out the truth of what really happened.”
The NBI is conducting a parallel investigation into the death of Jonson, whose body was found by the police in one of the rooms of Flotsam and Jetsam Hostel in San Juan town last September 18.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the NBI is coordinating with witnesses who were able to talk to Jonson and her boyfriend, Julian Ongpin, prior to her death.
TThe NBI was able to get the sworn statements of those who were with Bree Jonson and Julian Ongpin on the night that Bree Jonson died,” Guevarra said in a radio interview, adding these will “will serve as evidence” in the parallel investigation being conducted by the NBI.
Guevarra declined to divulge the result of the autopsy findings conducted by the NBI on Jonson’s body. The PNP has said her cause of death was asphyxia.
“For now, the NBI is conducting psychological autopsy. The forensic and histopathological autopsies are also ongoing,” he said.
Responding police officers recovered 12.6 grams of cocaine allegedly in the possession of Ongpin, the son of billionaire and Marcos-era trade minister Roberto Ongpin.
He was charged and detained over the drug raps but the provincial prosecutor of La Union ordered his release pending the conduct of preliminary investigation.
