ILOILO CITY — The Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) on Monday dismissed suspected threats on the family of slain overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Joanna Daniela Demafelis.
IPPO Director Police Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, said they have conducted investigation to verify reports that Joanna’s eldest brother Jojet received a death threat from unidentified person via a text message.
The slain migrant worker is sixth among nine siblings.
“Nag-conduct kami ng investigation, tinignan namin lahat ng angle kung saan pwedeng magkaroon ng threat, wala naman (We have conducted investigation, we looked for all the angles where we could see a threat but there was none),” Tayaba said.
According to Pablo Demafelis, uncle of Joanna, there were five individuals who visited the residence of the victim in Barangay Ferraris in Sara, Iloilo and said some unusual things to the family.
He said that an unidentified person even offered security to the family because of the big amount of financial assistance they received.
Despite the negative result of the investigation, Tayaba assured to strengthen security to the family.
“Nag-compensate kami, nagdagdag kami ng additional personnel kasi nag text sila sa Office of the President (We deployed additional personnel because they have directly texted the Office of the President),” Tayaba said.
To recall, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte gave parents and siblings of the slain OFW each a unit of cellphone with contacts in Malacanang during his visit to the wake last February 22.
The additional personnel were deployed last Saturday midnight.
Prior to the deployment of additional personnel, there was one team composed of six personnel securing the Demafelis family and the wake of Joanna.
Tayaba said that aside from the family, the personnel are securing the important guests visiting the wake of the slain OFW.
The interment of Joanna is scheduled on March 3. (Cindy Ferrer/PNA)
