Malou Matubis, who came to Saipan last year to help find his missing husband, told Variety that she has asked the assistance of Philippine Vice President Noli de Castro.
“Our family is crying for justice,” she said in a phone interview. “My two kids want justice for their father.”
Mrs. Matubis said she heard rumors that her husband took his own life.
Variety failed to get a comment from Castro & Associates, Mr. Matubis’s former employer.
Mrs. Matubis said she is convinced that her husband did not commit suicide because “he is a responsible person, is a family man, and he loves his family.”
Assuming that the remains found in Marpi belonged to her husband, Mrs. Matubis said police should not discount the possibility of “foul play.”
She said the vehicle that her husband used was found last year in the area not far from the place where the skeletal remains were recovered.
“Why did they fail to find the body when they recovered the vehicle? Is it not a basic investigation procedure to scout the surrounding area to look for possible evidence?” she asked.
It’s “unbelievable,” she added, that the remains were found five months after her husband was declared missing.
Police have sent photographs of the skeletal remains and other pieces of evidence recovered in Marpi to a pathologist on Guam.
Arnold Matubis, her husband’s brother, told Mrs. Matubis that the skeletal remains had no front teeth.
She said her husband had “good teeth.”
“Was he tortured before being killed and dumped in the area?” she asked.
A mother of a 14-year-old and a 17-year-old, Mrs. Matubis said she will come back to Saipan if a Philippine government official will investigate the case here.
She reiterated her appeal to her husband’s former employer to settle all unpaid wages.
She said before her husband left the Philippine after his vacation leave, she was told that his employer had yet to pay him his salary.
Alex Matubis was employed as a draftsman of Castro & Associates for 22 years.
Based on the documents they recovered from his room, Irene N. Tantiado, then United Workers Movement NMI president said Alex Matubis had $5,738.50 in collectibles from his employer as of Jan. 3, 2008.
The documents also showed that Alex Matubis got a total of $1,875 cash advances.
In an e-mail to Variety, Minda Castro, the wife of Castro & Associates’ Candido Castro, said they could have found those documents from Alex’s room but the question is does anyone know if those figures were accurate at the time that they found them?”
She added, “Alex has always been the one preparing his timesheets. According to his co-worker, what was published in the papers could have been a joint or combined calculation of the two employees’ timesheets. Both workers are named Alex,” Mrs. Castro said.
But Mrs. Matubis said her husband worked for his employer “for a long time so why aren’t they giving us financial assistance?”
“My kids need their father’s unclaimed salary,” she added.
She said her husband was very loyal to his employer.
“Where is their conscience?” she asked.
