POLICE in Cebu City have identified the suspects in the fatal shooting of a Sawang Calero barangay councilor along General Gines Street early Saturday, Jan. 3.
Councilor Ramon Diamante, who was also a fish trader at the Pasil Fish Port, died after he was shot by two assailants riding in tandem on a motorcycle.
Col. George Ylanan, chief of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said investigators are withholding the names of the suspects while a manhunt operation is ongoing.
Police identified the gunman’s companion and several accomplices after investigators from the Sawang Calero Police Station reviewed closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage from the area.
Ylanan said the shooting is linked to a previous shooting incident in the same barangay that was recently solved
by authorities.
“It was related to another shooting incident. It was related because those involved belong to the same barangay. The POIs (persons of interest) or the suspects are identified. They are already the subject of a manhunt operation,” Ylanan said.
The identification of the suspects follows a directive from Brig. Gen. Redrico Maranan, director of the Police Regional Office 7, for the CCPO to resolve the case immediately.
Aside from the CCTV footage, investigators have secured witnesses who recognized the suspects. Ylanan said the perpetrators are believed to be residents of the same neighborhood.
Backtracking of the CCTV footage revealed that more than two people were involved in the killing. Ylanan said accomplices were positioned in the area to act as lookouts and provide real-time information to the gunman and the motorcycle driver. / AYB