On Christmas morning 2023, while families across the Philippines were celebrating, Maria Tabing was summoned to her husband’s workplace. An operations manager from the Ford Balintawak showroom informed her that his replacement guard couldn’t wake him. She rushed to the scene, expecting to find her husband, Alfredo, merely asleep at his post. Instead, she walked into a scene of unimaginable horror. Alfredo, a 50-year-old security guard, was slumped over his desk, dead. In a gruesome and baffling act of cruelty, the upper half of his head was gone.

Alfredo Tabing was, by all accounts, a good man. Described by his family and colleagues as simple, kind, and hardworking, he was a devoted husband and father who had no vices, save for a love of karaoke. He was a reliable guard, respected by his coworkers at the Ford dealership where he had worked for five years. The tragedy of his death was compounded by the identity of the mastermind: not a stranger, but his own trusted friend and kumpare, Jomar Organes, a barista and janitor at the same dealership.

The crime was a cold, calculated betrayal, meticulously planned and executed on a night when vigilance was low. Police recovered chat logs from Christmas Eve that revealed Jomar’s sinister intentions hidden behind friendly messages. He offered to bring Alfredo food, then casually asked if he was the only guard on duty. When Alfredo confirmed he was alone, Jomar knew the showroom was vulnerable. Later that night, he sent a final, chilling message: “Merry Christmas, par.”

According to the police investigation and a viral social media post by Alfredo’s daughter, Jomar and his three accomplices—including another Ford employee, Michael Caballero—entered the showroom to execute a multi-million peso heist. The prevailing theory is that the honest guard, Alfredo, discovered the robbery in progress. When he refused to be complicit, they killed him to silence him, stabbing him in the neck. They then stole ₱3.6 million from the vault, a company car, and the victim’s cell phone.

In a final act of depravity, the suspects allegedly ate the canned goods Alfredo had packed to bring home to his family for their Noche Buena. They then meticulously cleaned the crime scene, leaving the showroom spotless and Alfredo’s uniform without a single drop of blood, before vanishing into the night with their loot and a horrifying trophy: the upper half of their victim’s head.

The case not only highlighted a vicious betrayal but also cast a harsh spotlight on the alleged gross negligence of the Ford Balintawak dealership. In her post, Alfredo’s daughter claimed the company had cut costs by assigning only one guard to the night shift. More damningly, she alleged the main branch had no functioning CCTV cameras since February 2022 and that the main door was merely a makeshift wooden plank. The family stated that in the wake of Alfredo’s murder, they received no sympathy or support from the company he died protecting. The Quezon City government later issued a cease and desist order against the dealership for violating a city ordinance requiring functional CCTVs.

As the investigation progressed, a disturbing new layer was added to the case. After months on the run, one of the suspects, Michael Caballero, surrendered. While he claimed he was an innocent bystander threatened into silence by Jomar, police discovered a chilling connection. Both Jomar and Michael are allegedly linked to the “Concepcion Criminal Group,” a notorious gang from Albay whose gruesome signature modus operandi is to mutilate their victims by removing the upper part of their heads after a robbery. Suddenly, the most bizarre aspect of the crime had a terrifying context.

Today, Michael Caballero is in custody, while the mastermind, Jomar Organes, and the other two suspects remain at large. The head of Alfredo Tabing has never been found. His family is left to grapple with an incomplete and agonizing grief, pleading not just for justice, but for the recovery of their loved one’s remains. “We know we will never see his smile again,” his wife Maria said. “But our only wish is that he can be whole and at peace in his final resting place.”