LUMINOL TEST TURNS NEGATIVE: Probers ready to file cyber warrant on Parohinog’s phone

By Jennifer P. Rendon 

With no consent in sight, the Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) PALIBOSFER, the unit tasked to probe the Sept 14, 2022 shooting incident in Estancia, Iloilo, has prepared an application for a cyber warrant to gain access to the phone of “person of interest” Jevron Parohinog.

Senior Master Sergeant Francisco Lindero Jr., SITG spokesperson, said Parohinog, the lone survivor in the shooting incident that killed his three friends – Mark Clarenz Libao, Jan Paul Mark Bosque, and Chrysler Floyd Fernandes – has not issued a waiver or consent allowing SITG to examine his mobile phone.

While Parohinog’s camp asserted that police investigators could see his phone, Lindero said the survivor must allow experts to conduct a digital forensic examination on his device.

“In that way, even deleted messages, call logs and similar things could be retrieved,” Lindero said.

As of now, the task group’s legal counsel is reviewing the application for a cyber warrant to be filed in court.

The SITG earlier gave Parohinog’s camp until Sept 28, 2022 to submit his waiver.

Lindero earlier explained that the consent or cyber warrant is a prerequisite for the Regional Anti-Cybercrime Unit (RACU)-6 to take cognizance of the mobile phone for the purpose of extraction of information in aid of the investigation.

The other phones recovered from the crime scene were already processed by RACU-6, and the reports concerning the result are already with the SITG.

“The information in Parohinog’s mobile phone could be vital in the validation being made by the SITG,” Lindero said.

Meanwhile, with the Luminol testing on the Parohinogs’ house and ice plant yielding negative results for blood traces, Lindero said the SITG is still not discounting the possibility that there is still a primary crime scene apart from the Isuzu Mu-X sports utility vehicle (SUV) where the bodies of Mark Clarenz Libao, Jan Paul Mark Bosque, and Chrysler Floyd Fernandes were found.

“We could downsize the areas where we could do further tests,” he said.

While the filing of the case against the perpetrators might not be near in sight, Lindero assured that the SITG is doing everything to give justice to the families of the slain victims.