Son of Victim, Girlfriend Held in Slaying of Filipino

The 17-year-old son of a slain Filipino-American newspaper executive and the youth’s 18-year-old girlfriend have been arrested in the killing and accused of writing a political death threat to cover up the crime, Glendale police said Friday.

The death Wednesday of Oscar Salvatierra, found shot to death in the bedroom of his Glendale home, prompted an international political outcry because the victim worked for the Philippine News, a San Francisco-based weekly paper that has bitterly opposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos. Salvatierra had received a death threat attacking the paper’s politics the day before he was slain.

But Glendale Police Chief David J. Thompson told a crowded press conference Friday that the investigation “has discovered no evidence whatever” to support “widespread speculation that Mr. Salvatierra’s death was politically motivated by pro-Marcos supporters.”

The mailed death threat, Thompson said, “was used by the individuals to hide their identity and involvement.”

“We believe, from the evidence available, that Mr. Salvatierra’s death was the result of domestic violence within the home, and committed by his 17-year-old son,” the police chief added.

Salvatierra’s 17-year-old son, Arnel, a senior at Glendale High School, and Teressa Kay Deburger, 18, whom police described as his accomplice, were arrested Thursday evening on suspicion of homicide.

“The only motive that we can determine at this particular time is a longstanding hatred by the son for his father,” Thompson said. “I’m not really at liberty to go into it, but we do feel that he and his father had some difficulties in coping with each other in the past.”

Thompson said the department had received and corroborated information from an “informant” that had enabled it to break the case. “We do have strong evidence, including the murder weapon, to support probable cause for this arrest,” he said.

Salvatierra, 41, headed the Los Angeles office of the Philippine News for the last 10 months and was its marketing director. The naturalized U.S. citizen had been in this country since the mid-1960s and was a certified public accountant.

Despite the political stance of the paper, he was not in the forefront of anti-Marcos activities in Los Angeles and reportedly had asked a co-worker, “Why me?” after receiving the letter.

‘Talked of Killing’

Tim McKiernen, the older brother of one of Arnel’s best high school friends, told The Times that since Salvatierra’s death his brother had told him that Arnel “had hated his father since probably about seventh grade” and “had talked of killing his father before--but my brother just brushed it off.”

“I know his family situation was bad, and I know he was into weapons--he had Soldier of Fortune magazine and things like that,” McKiernen said.

Asked about any specific family problems, McKiernen said: “I just know of a couple incidents that happened. I can’t tell you. . . . But I’ll tell you--it was pretty bad.”

McKiernen said he had been told that Arnel purchased mail-order weapons. “He had an interest in weapons, just like sort of a hobby, I guess,” he said.

McKiernen’s brother, reached later by The Times, declined to talk about his friend. And Glendale police said they could not comment on McKiernen’s statements.

Troubled Relationship

Paul Broneer, a biology teacher who knew both suspects, said that the younger Salvatierra and Deburger had an on-again, off-again relationship and that Salvatierra had told him about 10 days ago that they had broken up for good. Broneer said there had been bad feelings between the students’ families over their relationship, which began last year.

Oscar Salvatierra’s killing had prompted strong words in Los Angeles, Washington and Manila.

Philippine opposition leader Corazon Aquino had hailed Salvatierra as a martyr, and several members of Congress had pointed to the killing as an apparent act of political terrorism.

At a press conference the day Salvatierra was killed, Alex Esclamado, publisher of the Philippine News, said: “I am certain . . . that this is a political assassination, a hired job by one of Marcos’ agents.”

The Philippine Consulate said Friday it was “relieved” by the arrest.

Consular Statement

In a prepared statement, consular officials condemned statements made by U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) and Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.), who had charged that the killing appeared to be politically motivated.

The congressmen “immediately swallowed hook, line and sinker the charges made by irresponsible so-called leaders of the opposition,” consulate spokesman Larry Zabala Jr. said.

Esclamado, Cranston and Solarz each said that they do not regret their early condemnations of the Marcos government, and said that based on previous threats against the newspaper and Salvatierra, they reacted logically.

Solarz, chairman of the House subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, said Friday that the fact that Salvatierra was not a victim of Marcos’ regime “does not mean that Filipino death squads do not exist.”

Cranston said: “I don’t think the fact that this murder . . . apparently was not Marcos inspired relieves Ferdinand Marcos in any way. . . . He is obviously a man who resorts to violence, who resorts to fraud, who resorts to force to remain in power.”

‘No Apologies to Make’

“In this case I may be wrong,” Esclamado said. “But I have no apologies to make to Marcos and his agents, because the risk we face continues.”

Deburger was arrested about 7 p.m. Thursday outside of a friend’s home, and Arnel Salvatierra was arrested at the family home at about 10 p.m., Thompson said.

Deburger was being held at Glendale Jail while Salvatierra was detained at Juvenile Hall in Eastlake. Charges will be filed against both Monday, Thompson said.

Thompson said that police believed the mailed death threats received Tuesday by Oscar Salvatierra and a co-worker “were made and sent by the two parties we have arrested.” The letters were comprised of words clipped from periodicals.

The threat read: “Philippine News is a disgrace to the Filipino community in the U.S. Through your paper, your unwarranted accusations and lies have attacked your own countrymen. . . . For your crimes you are sentenced to death by execution.”

An FBI spokesman said that with the exception of “some details we need to take care of,” the bureau is pulling out of the case now that police say there is no political connection.

Investigation of Grenade

Thompson said that the Los Angeles Police Department will be investigating whether a grenade found planted in a desk drawer at Salvatierra’s office last summer--which newspaper employees had charged was a politically motivated terrorism attempt--had been placed there by his son.

Lt. Ed Henderson of the LAPD’s major crimes unit said that after the bomb was discovered, the department’s Criminal Conspiracy Section investigated but was not able to find a suspect. In the wake of the arrests, the department will meet next week with Glendale police investigators and reopen the investigation.