THE wife of Ricky Serenio clarified yesterday, September 5, that he has not returned to illegal drug business.
The wife who asked not to be named in a Press Conference yesterday also clarified that they are into lending business in Bago City and Pulupandan and that the lists on the notebook recovered from his car are names of those who borrowed money from them and not code names of his alleged contacts in the illegal drug business.
The wife also revealed that Ricky started the lending business for two years since he has been in the custody of former Moises Padilla Mayor Magdaleno Pena.
"Ricky used his allowance from Mayor Pena for our lending business. He has never returned to the drug trade," the wife said.
The wife also said that they have requested the National Bureau of Investigation to handle the case and conduct investigation.
Serenio, a self-confessed former bagman of the Berya Drug Group was ambushed and killed on Saturday, August 31 in Barangay Pahanocoy, Bacolod City by three suspects.
He has been controversial after he implicated some national and local officials into the illegal drug trade through his affidavits and has been in the custody of Pena.
The wife said that she was aware of the threats to the life of Serenio prior to his ambush.
She said that there were about 40 vendors are borrowing money from them. Some of the vendors were also with Mrs. Serenio during the Press Conference yesterday and confirmed that they have been borrowing money from Ricky. The collection is done daily by a collector they said.
Mrs. Serenio also said that she referred the investigation on the killing of her husband to the NBI because they don't trust the police as Serenio being a former bagman of Berya Tolentino drug group has named some high ranking and ordinary policemen in the drug trade.
She said that it is not fair for the police to have identified her husband as high value drug target because he has not been into the drug trade anymore.
Meanwhile, the lady business partner of Serenio who also asked not to be named for security reasons said in the same Press Conference yesterday that she is the owner of the car that was used by Serenio when he was ambushed.
She said that aside from the lending business, they are also selling beauty products and some of those products were recovered inside the car after the ambush.
She also clarified that the bank passbooks recovered at the car does not contain millions of pesos as reported by the police.