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Tuesday, July 01, 2003
Slain gunman offered P1M to kill Brillantes?
By Seth delos Reyes and Ben O. Tesiorna
DAVAO -- Monkayo Mayor Joel Brillantes's killer may have been enticed to do the job when offered P1 million as payment, said Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Director Eduardo Matillano Monday, adding this was what surfaced in their initial investigation on the case.
President Arroyo in Manila offered her condolences to the family of the slain mayor but said she wished he had been more vigilant over his personal security.
Matillano added that the wife of slain gunman Anecito Dejeto Sr., a security guard at a banana plantation in Barangay Tulalian in Sto. Tomas, Davao del Norte, said her husband gave her P3,000 just before Saturday and it wasn't even salary day so she concluded this could have been a partial payment.
Several days before Dejeto allegedly shot dead mayor Brillantes late Saturday night at a cockpit in Davao City, the plantation guard was often seen being fetched by a white van from his home, his sister-in-law Lila Layud said in a television interview.
This was reportedly the same van that fetched him that Saturday when he allegedly shot dead Brillantes but was himself slain when security aides of the mayor fought back.
Police found out that the van was driven by Tiwi Cajes, reportedly a former policeman in Monkayo town but had since been dropped from the rolls. He now works as a bodyguard for a miner in Mt. Diwata, police added.
Matillano said they believed the perpetrators had an escape plan, which was why Dejeto carried an ID card identifying him as a barangay policeman.
Several suspects
Police are still determining who ordered the Monkayo mayor's killing but they believe his murder is connected to the long-running feud over mining operations in the gold-rich Mt. Diwata (commonly known as Diwalwal).
Brillantes's wife Nene also believed that her husband's death was connected to the conflict in Diwalwal. She has several suspects in mind but refused to identify them.
Matillano said police are also not disregarding the possibility that the motive for the Monkayo mayor's killing may be political in nature.
"Election is fast approaching and he has some personal differences with other people," he pointed out.
Matillano said he is personally supervising the investigation on the brains behind the killing of the Monkayo mayor.
"I was even accused of favoring Brillantes when I supported his program to implement orders concerning the mining operation in Mt. Diwata when I was the regional police director in Region 11," he said.
Matillano said he believed then that Brillantes had the political will to set the mining operation in order, citing the mayor's order stopping all mining in the gold rush area.
"We already have a lead of people behind the plot but we cannot divulge it to the public so as not to jeopardize the operation," he added.
Mere coincidence
Arroyo in Manila ordered the police to conduct an in-depth investigation on the incident and to bring to justice all the suspects in the killing.
"I (also) direct the DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government) to work with the local government units and the police to enforce general law and order in the area," she added.
Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said they suspect the killing had something to do with mining issues in Monkayo.
He said it is mere coincidence that the mayor's killing came after the death of two other local executives who were also slain inside cockpits, thumbing down fears that it is part of a trend or series of assassinations.
The other slain mayors were Guerrero Zaragoza of Tayug, Pangasinan, killed June 22, and Moises Araham of Payao in Zamboanga Sibugay, who died last June 26.
Meanwhile, the Monkayo mayor's wife said she is leaving it to God to mete justice on her husband's killers.
She dismissed reports that her husband's bodyguards killed Dejeto, saying their firearms were earlier deposited when they entered the Matina Gallera on Saturday afternoon.
The mayor's wife said it is highly possible that the gun used to kill her husband was already inside the cockpit even before the gunman entered the establishment. Sun.Star Davao/With Sun.Star Luzon |
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