Sunday, December 17, 2006 Mayor orders cops to shut up on Sinsuat case
TO PUT a stop on the growing confusion over the true identity of the man killed in Bangkal two weeks ago, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte ordered the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) and other investigating agencies to shut up and refrain from giving any statement to the media about the case.
In an interview at DCPO Saturday, Duterte said starting Saturday, no police personnel must give any information about the shooting incident in Bangkal last December 4 involving suspected drug lord Lindongan Sinsuat and bus conductor Ting Alon Tula.
The mayor said they have "reasonable ground" that the person killed in that noontime ambush is Tula and not Sinsuat as earlier claimed by the police.
Duterte said he decided to step in after a growing confusion was brought about by speculations both from the media and the police officials.
"Stop speculating. It is not good. The people are confused," Duterte said.
He said he ordered the police to focus on the identity of the killers and not of the victim.
"The fact is somebody was killed. Focus on the killers," Duterte ordered.
The mayor said he wants to know how Tula is related to Sinsuat.
Reports reaching Sun.Star showed that Sinsuat is at the same van during the ambush and must have also been hit by the assailants.
Duterte said he has no idea of Sinsuat's location.
"He has become a mystery to all of us," Duterte said.
Tula, 41, a conductor of Grand Transport Corporation and a resident of Mapano Street in Kabacan, North Cotabato was shot and killed by armed men along MacArthur Highway in Bangkal near radio station dxSS at around 11 a.m.
Other passengers of the van identified as Rebecca Mamaluba, 30, a midwife and resident of Datu Piang in Maguindanao, and her niece Prida Gumbay, a student, were also wounded in the ambush. (BOT)
