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Thursday, November 15, 2007
Group formed to solve Japanese bizman’s case
By Oscar C. Pineda
CEBU CITY -- Police formed a special task group Wednesday to coordinate efforts of different agencies in solving Tuesday’s killing of Hiroshi Kusaka.
The group was formed amid suspicions raised on the Japanese trader’s driver during the ambush at the corner of G. Ouano and Plaridel Streets in Barangay Cambaro.
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Acting Mandaue City Police Director Rodel Calungsud quoted the crime scene area commander, Senior Inspector Pat Padaon, as saying that Efren Rosales, the businessman’s driver, kept on making missed calls and sending text messages to Flor Olita to update her on their location.
Olita, 36, is a staff member of H.K. Travel and Tours, a company owned by the slain Japanese.
Rosales denied he was communicating with Olita. The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) now has their cell phones. The two are also being investigated by CIDG.
Investigators have also asked the National Telecommunications Commission to provide them with records of conversations and messages for the two cell phones from 6 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. on the day of the shooting.
Rosales now owns all of the businessman’s properties and companies. Police said he served as dummy owner for the Japanese’s businesses here.
“Efren Rosales is a dummy and is technically the beneficiary of all of Kusaka’s business interests,” said Corpus.
Rosales said he will submit to Calungsud all incorporation papers of the businessman’s companies to identify his other associates. He, however, admitted being a front for the businessman. He said he initially declined the offer but eventually gave in to Kusaka’s persistence.
Investigators also expressed surprise with Rosales’s reaction to the first shot.
Investigators said they were puzzled why Rosales did not speed up after the first shot, to avoid the two successive shots that hit Kusaka on his chest.
Rosales, however, admitted to Sun.Star Cebu that right after the shooting, he got off the van but the gunmen saw him and pointed a gun at him.
“Ayaw ko intawon iapil brod (Spare me please, brod),” he told the man wearing a helmet.
Two things were established by members of Task Group Hiroshi Wednesday: that there was continuous communication by text messages and calls between parties before the shooting and that the gunman knew exactly where Kusaka was seated in the heavily-tinted van.
“I am confident that we will solve the Kusaka killing,” said CIDG’s Senior Superintendent Jose Jorge Corpus, a task group member.
Corpus asked experts in the police headquarters in Camp Crame to decipher the Japanese text messages in Kusaka’s phone and the contents of the victim’s laptop.
Corpus said they are leaning toward business as a motive in the killing—Rosales now owns all of Kusaka’s properties and a certain Tashiyuki Oda, reportedly owes the victim P20 million.
There were also reports that Kusaka owed some people in Japan.
The Mandaue City Police recorded all English text messages in Kusaka’s cell phone.
One of the messages was his request to his friend, SPO1 Ben Ngujo, to check the Bureau of Immigration on Oda’s whereabouts. Oda was his driver and friend but Kusaka had fired him.
Senior Inspector Patrick Vaño said that Oda stayed in the Philippines for 20 years. Rosales said Oda knows how to speak Bisaya because he has a Filipina wife in Zamboanga.
The CIDG is also trying to establish a link between the fatal ambush on Kusaka and previous killings of Japanese nationals in Mandaue City.
Isolated
As of lunchtime Wednesday, crime laboratory ballisticians said they have yet to examine the slugs and shells.
Calungsud said Kusaka arrived in Cebu last Saturday from Manila. The Japanese was on his way to the airport when he was shot several times as the van he was riding stopped for a red light at the G. Ouano and Plaridel intersection.
Kusaka came to Cebu twice a month and stayed three to four days.
The Cebu City Council Wednesday passed a resolution condemning the “senseless” killing of Kusaka.
In the approved resolution, Councilor Arsenio Pacaña said peace and order and the safety of foreign nationals should be ensured to protect Cebu’s tourism industry.
At the Capitol, Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia called for a thorough investigation on the killing. The governor heads the Regional Peace and Order Council.
Garcia assured tourists they are safe in Cebu, calling the killing an “isolated case.” (With LCR/MBG/Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Iloilo. (November 15, 2007 issue)
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Akbar laid to rest near his home in Basilan