ANGELES CITY—The son of former Pampanga Provincial Administrator Fidel Arcenas, who is now being sought as the prime suspect in the killing of his former wife, was earlier convicted of attempted homicide but was allowed to go on probation.
The prime suspect, in the killing of RCBC-Binondo bank teller Tania Camille Dee, 33, whose body was exhumed from a shallow grave in the backyard of a house in a plush subdivision in Barangay Balibago here at around 1 a.m. on Sunday, was identified as Fidel Sheldon Arcenas.
Court records show that on April 30, 1997, Arcenas was charged with attempted homicide by a certain Anne Manaloto under Criminal Case 97-814.
Arcenas was reportedly the boyfriend of the younger sister of Manaloto, identified as Malou. Arcenas reportedly volunteered to bring home Anne from a party and allegedly started to molest her while inside his vehicle.
Arcenas, however, mauled Malou when she rejected his sexual advances.
On July 5, 2011, after 14 years of trial, Arcenas was finally convicted of the offense by Judge Gemma Theresa B. Logronio of Municipal Trial Court (MTC) 3.
After his conviction, Arcenas applied and was granted probation on November 15, 2011, since “his case falls under the Probation Law,” Chief Parole and Probation Officer Isagani Villena said.
“We are still waiting if new charges will be filed against him, which will automatically mean a violation [of the conditions] and [result in the] cancellation of his probation,” Villena said.
“We were also surprised of the news because he was very active in the therapeutic community program,” he said.
Arcenas’s four-year probation is set to expire in November had he not figured in the murder of his wife, according to Villena.
He also said Arcenas reports to him regularly and was even present in the TC activity on June 8. But Arcenas already failed to report to the office on June 24 for a seminar, Villena said.
Dee went missing on June 21 after reportedly agreeing to meet Arcenas in this city a day earlier. Reports said Dee went to see Arcenas, who allegedly told her he will give her a car.
Dee’s pictures were posted on social media after she went missing, which immediately went viral.
On the night of June 20, at around 6 p.m., a CCTV footage showed Dee entering Niji Japanese Restaurant on Don Juico Avenue just outside the Clark free port’s south perimeter fence. Two minutes later, Arcenas arrived at the restaurant.
Dee and Arcenas were caught several times by the CCTV until they finally left together at around 7 p.m. It was the last time that Dee was seen alive.
Relatives and friends of Dee posted her picture on Facebook after she failed to come home.
Meanwhile, a spot report from the Pampanga Criminal Investigation and Detection Team said that at about 9 p.m. on June 27, Regina Tinio Dychioco, mother of Arcenas’s girlfriend and live-in partner Angela, told the police that her daughter and her boyfriend borrowed the keys to the house she owned at Block 10 Lot 4, Lilian Street, Santa Maria Subdivision in Barangay Balibago here.
Dychioco said Arcenas returned the keys of the said house on June 26 and revealed that she knows a certain Tania Dee, who was reported missing since June 20, as the ex-wife of Arcenas.
Dychioco also disclosed that Dee might already be dead and buried at the backyard of the said house.
CIDT provincial head, Chief Insp. Ferdinand DG Aguilar, said he immediately formed a team and, together with the Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco) team, went to the house.
At about 1 a.m. on June 28, Aguilar said they found the lifeless body of a woman buried about 3 feet below the ground.
Aguilar said the corpse was “in a semi fetal position, clad in denim pants and striped shirt.” The head of the corpse was “wrapped in a plastic trash bag with tape and bath towel,” he added.
The Soco team, led by Chief Insp. Bernalen R. Agpalasin, discovered a gunshot wound that entered the back of the head and exited in her face.
The cadaver was brought to the Pangilinan Funeral Parlor in Barangay Santo Entierro here, where it was later identified by relatives as the missing bank teller.
Dee had filed complaints of violation of Republic Act 9262 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act, against Arcenas while they were still living together.
Dee was the second wife of Arcenas, who earlier sired a daughter from his union with Maria Elena Vitug.
Arcenas’s father Fidel, his namesake, was provincial administrator when Mark Lapid was governor of Pampanga from 2004 to 2007. He is also a key political adviser and strategist of Sen. Lito Lapid.
The Arcenases were originally from Maasin, Southern Leyte, who migrated to this city after the elder Arcenas worked for Mayor Ed Pamintuan in 1995.