'Battle of Motions' heighten as Tan massacre nears 1 yr anniv
The celebrated murder of Filipino-Chinese couple Francisco "Bobby" Tan, his wife Cindy Zayco and six year old daughter Katherine nears its one year anniversary with the grisly killing now marked with legal maneuvering of both camps.
With murder and parricide cases hanging and principal suspects yet to officially face charges, The News Today (TNT) learned of yet another set of voluminous documents filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ) today (Wednesday).
In a 54-page Comment and Opposition, the Zaycos through counsel presented its argument against the Petition for Review sought by brothers Archie and Jan Michael Tan, the duo being the offended parties and tagged by authorities as main culprits in the violent killings.
"What kind of person can have his parents killed? A spoiled, perverted, obsessive man who has tasted the trappings of wealth and doesn’t want to give them up. What about the crime scene? Strangers do not alter crimes scenes. The killer in the house did. Why? A crime scene is staged to redirect investigators away from the most likely suspect," the "closing statement" of the Zaycos' Comment and Opposition went as it laid down the supposed timeline of the crime as it unfolded.
"The Tan family murder case fits the real-life-sins-of-the-rich genre and adds up to the growing books about rich, wicked people bumping off their own families and relations. Steven Benson, scion of tobacco heiress Margaret Hitchcock Benson, murdered his family--his mother and his adoptive younger brother Scott--by planting and exploding pipe bombs that blew up the family Chevrolet Suburban in the driveway of the Benson home in Naples, Florida in the morning of July 9, 1985. His sister Carol Lyn survived the blast but was severely burned. The prosecution was able to establish by circumstantial evidence that Steven, frightened over his suspicion that Margaret would disinherit him for embezzling family money, and overran by greed, murdered his own family to keep his inheritance.
Thus, there is enough probable cause against: (a) ARCHIE TAN, the avid admirer of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein, and (b) JAN MICHAEL TAN, to hold them for trial for the deaths of their father Francisco "Bobby" Tan, Jr., stepmother Cynthia Marie "Cindy" Zayco-Tan, and stepsister Katherine "Kathy" Zayco-Tan," it ended..
The Tan siblings moved to have the earlier resolution of the Iloilo City Prosecutors' Office junked finding probable cause to charge them on their parent's deaths and six year old stepsister. Yet the Zaycos in the latest legal move, made an elaborate presentation of its objection particularly the essence of the timeline between 5 p.m. of January 8 to 5 a.m. of January 9. The murdered bodies of the trio were discovered early morning of January 9th this year.
The Comment and Opposition was directly addressed to Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez. This, as the Court set January 12 as hearing date for yet another Motion to Dismiss filed by the Tan brothers.
Meantime, reconciliatory talks are reportedly underway on the Tan and Zayco families with one lawyer not involved in the legal tussle serving as the "family messenger." TNT learned from an insider that Tan matriarch Conchita Tan allegedly offered to "sponsor" an all-expense paid family trip to Iloilo City "complete with shopping money." Surviving children of the murdered couple are now based in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental following a Family Court's decision handing custody to the maternal side of the family.
The offer as disclosed reportedly has an added perk of giving the Zayco-Tan children "a free hand" on the shopping money with not one single Tan relative or family member going with them.
The murder has divided the two families that heightened days after the incident when agents from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) assisted the Zaycos in getting all five remaining Zayco-Tan siblings.