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By Harley Palangchao, Reporter
CAMP DANGWA, Benguet: Police
teams and posses of Cordillera tribesmen hunting for the brutal
killer of US Peace Corps volunteer Julia Campbell are closing in on
the suspect, Juan Duntogan, said to be a 25-year-old woodcarver.
This was announced Monday by
Supt. Joseph Adnol, chief information officer of the Cordillera
police. The suspect, he said, had been hiding in La Trinidad,
Benguet. Adnol gave no other details about his present whereabouts.
Adnol said that Ifugao police
raided Duntogan’s house in Batad, Banaue, Ifugao, where
authorities recovered pieces of evidence that could further him pin
Miss Campbell’s murder on him.
He said a bloodstained piece of
wood was recovered near the suspect’s home.
Earlier, police had told the
media that Duntogan’s wife is the woman who sold a soda to Julia
Campbell before she went on her solo trek toward the Batad Rice
Terraces, where her body was recovered 10 days after she went
missing on April 8.
Information was received that
Duntogan visited the Benguet Provincial Jail at the time the search
and rescue operations for Campbell was going on but the jail’s log
book did not show him to be among the visitors.
Meanwhile, tribal leaders in
Banaue, Ifugao, have formed their own tracking and posse teams to
help in the manhunt.
A senior police official base in
Camp Crame said that tribal leaders in Banaue are coordinating their
movements with the Philippine National Police (PNP).
The PNP official said tribal
leaders are angrily blaming the suspect Duntogan for the sudden dip
in the number of tourist arrivals in Ifugao.
The police official said that
local residents and tribal folks in the area live on the tourist
trade, selling souvenirs and serving as trekking guides.
The PNP chief, Director General
Oscar Calderon, has been informed of the help being given by the
tribes.
Police scene-of-the-crime
operatives (SOCO) have found Campbell’s camera near the place
where she was buried by her attacker or attackers.
--With
Anthony Vargas
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