MANILA, Philippines - Three policemen and two others were arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) over the weekend in connection with the woman who was stuffed in a plastic drum found floating in the Pasig River.

Inspector Eljie Jacobe and Police Officer 1 Mark Jay de los Santos were caught by NBI agents while they were about to withdraw P50,000 from real estate agent Adora Lazatin’s account at an automated teller machine in five days after she was reported missing.

Jacobe is with the National Capital Region Police Office’s supplies division and was formerly assigned to the Manila Police District (MPD).

He was still in uniform when he was arrested at a bank in Bicutan, Parañaque at around 3:30 a.m. on Saturday.

At least P200,000 had been withdrawn from Lazatin’s account, according to the NBI.

The drum containing Lazatin’s body was found floating near the Escolta ferry station by two Metropolitan Manila Development Authority employees on Friday.

Lazatin’s husband, Osmundo, cut short his stint as a seaman to identify the victim’s body at the MPD.

The 56-year-old victim’s head, hands and feet were wrapped with packaging tape and a length of nylon cord was coiled around her neck, according to Senior Police Officer 2 Jonathan Bautista, a homicide investigator at the MPD.

Police Officer 1 Edmon Gonzales, Bureau of Corrections officer Domingo Balanquit and Empire Salas were arrested in follow-up operations.

Lazatin’s debit cards and passbooks were seized from the suspects as well as mobile phones, police and BuCor identification cards, pistols and knives.

The NBI is hunting down three other suspects in connection with Lazatin’s murder.

Beware of buyer

According to a source, Lazatin advertised to sell her property in Las Piñas and told her son Ryan that she was about to meet a prospective buyer – who turned out to be De los Santos – at a mall in the city on the morning of April 4.

Ryan reported to the Las Piñas police that his mother was missing when she failed to answer his text messages in the afternoon of the same day and his inquiries with a friend of hers turned out to be futile.

The NBI said initial investigation showed De los Santos reportedly lured her into a maroon Suzuki Swift.

He and Gonzales later bound Lazatin’s hands and blindfolded and gagged her as Jacobe and another accomplice served as lookouts.

The suspects drove her to a safehouse along C-6 Road in Taguig, where they took her debit card and forced her to reveal its personal identification number.

Money trail

Ryan decided to check his mother’s bank account online, knowing that his mother had P500,000 in the account – her share of the proceeds from properties she had recently sold.

He found that P60,000 had been withdrawn from an ATM in Caloocan City. Lazatin’s family decided to report the incident to the NBI.

The NBI, coordinating with the bank, found that a man wearing a baseball cap and ski mask had withdrawn P50,000 from the bank’s branches in Caloocan, Abad Santos-Antipolo and Manila between midnight and 4 a.m. from April 5 to 9.

The NBI said the man – who turned out to be De los Santos – wore a dark jacket, basketball shorts and rubber slippers.

Stakeout

The NBI deployed more than 100 men to conduct stakeouts on dozens of ATMs across four cities for five days until they chanced upon a black Ford Fiesta (ABJ-7294) parked in front of an ATM in Bicutan, Taguig City at around 3 a.m.

De los Santos came out of the car and was approaching the ATM when NBI agents, led by Special Investigator Joselito Guillen, accosted him.

De los Santos tried to escape but the agents subdued him. Jacobe tried to speed away in the Fiesta but agents blocked his path and arrested him.

Hatching a plan

In his confession, Jacobe said he and his group met in Taguig on April 2 and hatched a plan to kidnap Lazatin and demand ransom money from her family, who reside in Molino, Cavite.

After taking her to a safehouse in Taguig, where they forced her to hand over her debit card, Jacobe and the others took Lazatin to another safehouse, this one in Caloocan City.

They stripped her of her clothes, leaving only her underwear, and strangled her, fearing that she would be able to identify them, Jacobe said.

The five suspects were charged with kidnapping with homicide and violation of the access devices regulation law before the Las Piñas prosecutor’s office yesterday morning.