PHILIPPINE National Police (PNP) Chief Guillermo Eleazar on Friday, July 23, 2021, ordered local police in Cebu to conduct a thorough investigation into the killing of radio blocktimer Reynante Cortes in Cebu City.
Eleazar assured that the police will look into all angles, including threats that Cortes may have received.
In Cebu City, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Central Visayas has started its investigation.
On Friday, July 23, CIDG 7 investigators visited the scene of the crime outside the DyRB Radyo Pilipino station on N. Bacalso Avenue in Barangay Mambaling to gather evidence.
CIDG 7 Chief Police Col. Ireneo Dalogdog told reporters that his team is gathering weeklong footage from closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) in the area to determine if Cortes was being monitored by his assailants just before he was gunned down.
Dalogdog said they are conducting the investigation on orders of their chief, Police Maj. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro.
Investigators from the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) said they have no leads yet.
Lt. Col. Wilbert Parilla, CCPO’s deputy director for operations, told reporters that they invited Cortes’s close-in bodyguard, Felix Booc, to help shed light on what happened.
Booc was with Cortes when the radio blocktimer was gunned down.Booc told investigators that he heard a single gunshot while he was waiting inside Cortes’s car.
An autopsy revealed two bullet wounds on Cortes’s body.
Parilla said they are still waiting for the results from the Regional Crime Laboratory to determine what type of firearm was used to kill Cortes. (AYB / JKV / TPM / SunStar Philippines)