Sunday, April 16, 2006
Bantay Dagat chief's killer flashed 'official badge'
CEBU CITY -- Homicide investigators are pursuing a theory that the man who shot and killed Cebu City Bantay Dagat official Elpidio "Jojo" de la Victoria could be a member of the police force.
De la Victoria, 47, died early Thursday morning, less than 24 hours after a lone assailant shot him outside his home in Sitio Dawis, Barangay San Roque, Talisay City.
Before the gunman fired, witnesses saw him display a badge.
However, they "could not determine whether it was a badge of a policeman, a security guard or a member of the BJMP (Bureau of Jail Management and Penology)," said deputy director Rex Derilo of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 7.
"He could be a civilian who used a badge to deceive people into thinking he is a member of a law enforcement agency," Derilo said.
The CIDG 7 released Saturday a sketch of the gunman, based on the accounts of six witnesses.
They described the gunman as a good-looking mestizo about 25 to 26 years old, 5'5", with a military haircut and a .45 pistol.
The Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 has designated the CIDG 7 as the lead investigating agency in de la Victoria's killing.
De la Victoria was not only the Cebu City market administrator, but also the director of the Cebu City Bantay Dagat Commission and president of the Philippine National Association of Fish Wardens.
Thrice
He was shot three times last Wednesday afternoon while he was about to enter through the gate of his house.
He died at 7:40 a.m. Thursday at Chong Hua Hospital.
While investigators are looking at all angles, Derilo said, they are focusing on de la Victoria's job as a motive for his killing.
As for the driver whose taxi the gunman used in his getaway, Derilo said he is still under "custodial investigation" and was asked to stay at the CIDG 7 headquarters.
Derilo, however, clarified that the driver, identified as Roberto Goc-ong of ROC Taxi (GWU-995), may go home anytime he wants as long as he promises to show up whenever he is needed in the investigation.
Derilo also learned that sometime last year, the taxi unit Goc-ong drove for his previous employer was also used as a getaway vehicle in a robbery.
Goc-ong, however, volunteered to report the incident to the police.
Goc-ong, in an interview with reporters at the CIDG 7 headquarters Saturday, said he had no idea the man who flagged him down was a gunman.
Arrest
He narrated that he had just dropped off his passengers, a couple, at a house near de la Victoria's place when a man suddenly hopped in.
The man ordered him to go straight until they reached the national road, near a church.
Goc-ong said he failed to take a good look because the gunman took pains to hide his face.
For his part, Talisay City Police Chief Romeo Perigo announced Saturday the arrest of one Rene "Tata" Barangan, 25, but clarified that the latter was involved in a separate murder case.
Perigo said they would ask witnesses to take a good look at Barangan, in case he's involved in the attack on de la Victoria.
Police arrested Barangan on Good Friday outside a university church in Carbon, Cebu City for allegedly shooting to death his neighbor John Arengo, 42, in Sitio Kalubihan, Barangay Poblacion, Talisay City.
Asked about the "police" badge the gunman carried, Perigo confirmed that is one angle that investigators are pursuing.
Not sure
"But we can't be so sure yet because the jail guards, firemen and even security guards have their badges too," Perigo said. Besides, a fake PNP badge can also be manufactured, he added.
The police force's failure to catch up with de la Victoria's killer has prodded the Talisay City Government to consider buying a new patrol car.
Perigo's team could have arrested the gunman had their multicab not conked out while they were chasing the getaway taxi on the Cebu South Coastal Road.
The old multicab proved no match for the speeding cab as it headed toward Cebu City, through the South Reclamation Project.
Pushed to its limits, the multicab's engine overheated before the police team reached the SRP bridge, which links the cities of Talisay and Cebu.
Mayor Socrates Fernandez said Talisay City Hall already has a budget to purchase a Toyota Revo as a new PNP patrol car.
"We already have an appropriation for that, and we will buy it soon," the mayor assured.
Ignored
Like other local leaders, Fernandez had hoped that dela Victoria, a fellow Talisaynon, would survive the attack.
Evelyn, dela Victoria's wife, told reporters that her husband had been receiving death threats since he assumed the post as program director of the Cebu City Bantay Dagat Commission.
She said her warning for dela Victoria to be extra-careful went unheeded, as the latter would simply said he would leave his fate to God.
Under de la Victoria's leadership, illegal fishing slowed down within the seawaters of Cebu City, what with Bantay Dagat's round-the-clock sea-borne patrol operations.
Dela Victoria also led the "market denial" campaign that prevented illegally caught fish from finding their way into Cebu City's public markets.
Until recently, dela Victoria served as an active partner of environmental lawyer Antonio Oposa, who initiated the move to close the Visayan sea triangle to commercial fishing vessels.
(April 16, 2006 issue)
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