AWOL Navy officer, last person seen with Marine slain inside camp, hunted

From InterAksyon (Dec 21): AWOL Navy officer, last person seen with Marine slain inside camp, hunted



Navy handout photo of 1st Lieutenant Shelina Calumay, disbursing officer of the Navy Inspector General, who was found dead in her car inside camp last month, bullet wound to the face. The military is hunting a naval officer last seen with her, and who has since gone AWOL.

Stressing the man is not yet deemed a suspect, the military is hunting a Navy officer who has gone AWOL a day after he was seen with a female Marine lieutenant who was found dead inside her car in Fort Bonifacio late November.

Lieutenant Junior Grade Benjie Chico is wanted for going absent without leave and is not yet considered a suspect in the murder of 1st Lieutenant Shelina Calumay, according to Colonel Edgard Arevalo.

Calumay was found slumped in her car, a bullet wound to the face, around 6 a.m. on November 26. The car was found in front of the Jurado Hall of Naval Station Jose Francisco. Until her death, she was the Special Disbursing Officer of Marine Major General Remigio Valdez, the Navy Inspector General.

The day after Calumay was found dead, Chico had asked to be excused from work because he was not feeling well and has not reported in since then, Arevalo said.

Witness statements confirmed that Calumay was last seen alive with Chico the night before she was found dead, Arevalo said, adding that Calumay had sent a text message to her husband informing him that she was driving Chico somewhere.

Calumay’s husband, Jeremy, is a Marine sergeant assigned to the 62nd Force Reconnaissance Battalion.

Chico is being hunted by the intelligence community for his going AWOL, although he remains a “person of interest to us because he was the last person seen with the victim,” said Arevalo.

He stressed that this did not automatically make Chico a suspect and cited a Supreme Court ruling that says, in effect, that any person last seen with a missing person who is later found dead does not necessarily become tagged as the killer. "But he is a material witness; at the very least tatanungin siya(he will be questioned),” said Arevalo of Chico.

Once Chico is found, he will be arrested and placed in the brig, or Navy jail, and immediately arraigned and tried by a court martial for going AWOL.

Although Chico has been officially dropped from the rolls after going missing for more than 10 days, Arevalo explained that he remains subject to military justice. An officer’s commission is signed by the President, and only the President can have him officially removed from military service.

Being dropped from the rolls means Chico will no longer receive any pay and benefits.

Police are the ones who can question Chico if he is found, and determine if he is linked in any way to Calumay’s murder. It is also the police who can file charges.
Chico and Calumay were both enlisted personnel who were commissioned after graduating from the Naval Officer Candidate Course Class 2013, Arevalo said.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/101596/awol-navy-officer-last-person-seen-with-marine-slain-inside-camp-hunted