|
Tuesday, March 09, 2004
Cop, pal eyed as Mayor's assassins
By Mia E. Abellana and Garry Cabotaje
CEBU CITY -- The two men arrested for the killing of Hindang, Leyte Mayor Roy Jumao-as and his son Jake are most likely hired killers, according to authorities.
But PO1 Roque Marsan Bisnar (not Visnar as earlier reported) of the Subangdaku Police Station said he was on duty when the Jumao-ases were gunned down in Cebu City Thursday afternoon.
Both Bisnar, 34, and Neddy Polistico, 31, also said they did not know Jumao-as and that they are from Inopacan, a town seven kilometers away from Hindang.
Police have no evidence to link the two men to the twin killings on D. Jakosalem St. at 4:45 p.m. of March 4 except the witnesses' accounts.
No firearm was recovered from any of them and they can't be subjected to a paraffin test because the gunpowder would have been washed off by then. Gunpowder residue stays on the skin for 72 hours.
Bisnar and Polistico were arrested Sunday afternoon in Mohon, Talisay City after two eyewitnesses pointed to them as the assailants.
Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 7 Chief Salvador Manga Jr., though, is not yet concluding if the motive was political or business-related.
"Hindi kasi sila nagsasalita. We don't know yet if anyone ordered them to kill the mayor. That has yet to be determined," Manga said.
When they were presented to reporters at the CIDG 7 office Monday noon, both men said they were surprised that they were being accused of the killing.
"It's not true. I was on duty at the time Jumao-as was killed," Bisnar told reporters in Cebuano.
He said he was a beat patrol officer in Tipolo to the Subangdaku flyover in Mandaue City from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. that day and that traffic enforcers, vendors and his fellow policemen could attest to his claim.
He admitted, though, that his assumption of duty was not recorded in the police blotter because beat patrol officers immediately report to their assigned areas.
Bisnar, who reportedly confiscated a video carrera machine last Thursday morning, was assigned to the Subangdaku police just last week.
He also denied reports that he had an ax to grind against the mayor and that it was Jumao-as who was responsible for kicking him out of Hindang and getting him assigned in Cebu.
He said it was Mayor Alfredo Lloren of Inopacan, Leyte, who wanted him out of Inopacan town because he had a fling with Lloren's cousin.
Sun.Star tried but failed to get the side of Mayor Lloren.
Bisnar was reacting to reports that he was angry at Jumao-as for being the one behind his transfers.
He worked as garbage collector in Inopacan in 1995 before he came to Cebu to try his luck as a policeman.
Bisnar also said the report that he served as bodyguard for the wife of Jumao-as' rival for the mayoral seat was false.
For his part, Barangay Captain Elpidio Cabal Jr. of Dos, Del Norte, Hindang, Leyte, said the authorities can check police records that Bisnar was never a bodyguard of his wife Betty when she was the Hindang mayor from 1998 to 2001.
"Just because we are in the other political party, they will jump to a conclusion that we are behind it," Cabal said in a phone interview Monday.
Jumao-as, a Cebuano whose wife hails from Hindang town, won when he ran for the second time against Betty in the 2001 elections.
He just arrived in Cebu and was getting out of the taxi with his 28-year-old son Jake when two men walked up behind them and shot them.
Witnesses identified Bisnar through a cartographic sketch, but the policeman argued that his face was different from the sketch.
For his part, Polistico said he was repairing Bismar's fence at the time the Jumao-ases were shot dead just outside their apartment in Cebu City.
Polistico also said he only met the policeman in Cebu. He was staying with Bismar's uncle in Talisay City so he could work as a carpenter.
Despite their arguments, CIDG 7 Chief Manga said the Cebu City Police Office had basis to arrest them because witnesses identified them as the gunmen.
Subangdaku Police Station chief Gaudencio Cagape said that Bisnar's beat patrol duty in Barangay Tipolo starts at 8 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m.
Cagape cited the report of SPO4 Gil Retuya, who was with Bisnar in confiscating a video carrera machine in the morning of March 4.
However, Retuya stayed in the police station after the confiscation while Bisnar went with tanod Tito Miranda.
TV Patrol Cebu reported yesterday that Miranda didn't see Bisnar anymore past noon that day.
Bisnar reportedly told Miranda that he had to leave early because he
had somewhere else to go.
Sun.Star tried to reach Miranda through the Tipolo Barangay Hall Monday afternoon but nobody answered the phone.
(March 9, 2004 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
Group files raps vs Arroyo, Defensor, Ebdane