Filipina painter Bree Jonson was found dead in a resort room in La Union that she shared with Julian Roberto Ongpin, the son of billionaire businessman Roberto Ongpin. The younger Ongpin was later taken into police custody for drug possession, authorities said Monday, September 20.
Also read: From the Stillness of Nature to Animals in Motion: The Art of Bree Jonson
The 29-year-old angel investor and art patron told staff at the Flotsam and Jetsam resort in San Juan town that he found the 30-year-old Jonson lifeless in their bathroom, according to a police report. The investigator on the case, Master Sergeant Alfredo Fajardo, confirmed the incident separately to reportr by phone.
Ongpin will be charged with illegal possession of drugs, according to a report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
“We did not know if she was already dead [when we arrived at the hostel]. So we had her brought to the hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival,” San Juan police chief, Major Gerardo Macaraeg, said. He added that they "found plenty of cocaine in the bed."
"We cannot tell what caused [Jonson's] death. We have to wait for the result of the autopsy,” Macaraeg told the Inquirer in a telephone interview on Sunday night.
The two checked in early evening of September 17, Friday, said Fajardo. They stepped out before midnight and returned to their room at around 3 a.m. That was the last time Jonson was seen alive, he said.
Thirty minutes later, Ongpin rushed out of their room asking for help saying Jonson was dead in their bathroom after an apparent suicide. Ongpin looked anxious (balisa) at that time, police said.
Jonson was an artist who painted animals and plants to "critique the relationship that humans have with their environment, and the divide that has grown between them," as described in the biography on her official website. Her last solo exhibit, ZZYZYX, was held at Art Informal in January 2021.
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