Monday, August 27, 2007 Citom asks NBI to takeover probe on enforcer’s shooting
MANDAUE City police have yet to identify the man who shot a Cebu City Traffic Management Office (Citom) enforcer last April.
This prompted the Citom board last Wednesday to request the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to take over the investigation.
On mass motion, the Citom board urged NBI 7 Medardo de Lemos for help because of the lack of development of the case.
Muñez, described as a hardworking, no-nonsense traffic enforcer, was shot in the back of the head in Barangay Looc, Mandaue.
Witnesses said the gunman was 5’5” tall, thin, had a brown complexion and short dark hair. He was riding a red Aura motorbike.
Muñez was a member of the Task Force Franchise, which required him to call the attention of drivers who go against traffic rules, and to impound their vehicles.
Citom executive officer Arnel Tancinco had said that he could not find an enforcer as dedicated to his work as Muñez, who had a clean record since joining the office in 1994.
Investigators suspect that his death had something to do with his catching drivers of 21-B jeepneys who illegally enter Cebu City.
The Cebu City Police Office traffic division even sent men to Mandaue to help investigate the shooting by providing information and helping evaluate the leads and possible motives of the attack.
But nothing has come out yet in the investigation.
Job-related
“Nothing has been achieved by the Mandaue police. Wala may resulta (there has been no result) since his death last April. So the board decided that the NBI should do the job. A lot of people believe the shooting was job-related,” said City Council Sylvan Jakosalem.
Being the chairman of the committee on transportation, he presides over Citom board meetings in behalf of Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
He said that even before a copy of the resolution reached de Lemos, he already requested the NBI 7 director, who immediately took cognizance of the case.
Also, Jakosalem said that since the City could not provide guns to traffic enforcers, they should be given non-lethal weapons instead.
He said the mayor has agreed to provide either tear gases or stun guns to enforcers for their protection.
The attack on Nuñez was the third in 10 months after PO3 Allan Magalso was shot in June last year, in what investigators believed was related to the enforcement of a city ordinance that banned Mandaue public utility jeepneys from reaching downtown Cebu City.
Last October, a traffic enforcer was stabbed three times on N. Bacalso Ave., Cebu City for ordering a driver to move from a “no-stopping” zone and for issuing a ticket for the violation.
The driver, who has a bounty on his head, remains at large. (RHM)
