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Monday, September 11, 2006
Victims knew gunman: cops
CEBU CITY -- The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) released Sunday a sketch of the man who killed a moneylender and her secretary last Saturday, even as they admitted a policeman remains the most probable suspect.
A joint team of investigators from the Homicide and Theft and Robbery Sections (TRS) came up with the sketch, based on the description given by victim Pilar H. Hernandez’s driver, Alfonso Evangelista, 49.
Hernandez was killed with Wivina (not Vivina as earlier reported) Pancho, 56, around 9 a.m. inside PRH Lending Investor, a money-lending firm she owned along T. Padilla Ext., Barangay Tejero, Cebu City.
Evangelista described the gunman as 30 to 35 years old, about 5’7" tall, stocky and with wavy hair.
He told investigators that before he left the lending firm and headed to Hernandez’s house in Banilad that day, he saw a policeman inside the office.
Acting CCPO Director Melvin Gayotin said the handgun, a 9mm pistol, suggests the perpetrator “is a man in uniform.”
Although the gun is available commercially to private individuals, the PNP issues 9mms as standard firearms to their personnel.
Gayotin told Sun. Star Sunday that unless other developments crop up, investigators are concentrating on the theory that a policeman carried out the killing.
“So far, there is no other reason for us to believe otherwise. We are still digging up on the possibility that a policeman may be behind the killing,” Gayotin said.
Inspector Erlando Metante, Homicide Section chief, said in a separate interview that they already tapped the help of other intelligence units from both the city and province.
He said SPO2 Zenaido Pastorfide’s team, which was tasked to handle the case, went to the Cebu Provincial Police Office Sunday to check on the personal files of its personnel.
On the possibility that Hernandez was also robbed, Gayotin and Metante said they are still waiting for the family to declare how much money was taken.
Also, further investigation revealed that the victims knew the gunman because the crime scene showed no sign of forced entry.
The glass door was equipped with automatic lock, and Pancho reportedly did not immediately let someone in unless she knew the person.
Hernandez, who was in the money-lending business since 1974, was fatally shot in the heart and liver. She also had a seven-centimeter-deep stab wound in the nape.
Pancho, on the other hand, was shot thrice in the head and four times in the extremities.
Both her palms bore bullet holes, indicating that she tried to shield herself. (JST of Sun.Star Cebu)
(September 11, 2006 issue)
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