MANATAD
Shootings in six hours in Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu
The killings by motorcycle-riding-gunmen in Metro Cebu continue on Friday with a police officer, who has been absent without official leave (AWOL), and a female jail visitor as among the latest casualties in the list.
The separate killings also happened at least six hours apart in Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu cities.
First to fall was the AWOL police officer, Rey Manatad, 46, of Barangay Canduman, Mandaue City.
Manatad, who worked as a security agency inspector, was shot in the head by a motorcycle-riding assailants, who tailed him as he got off his motorcycle and was about to enter a gated establishment in P. Sanchez St. in Barangay Canduman at past 9 a.m., said Chief Insp. Raymundo Enriquez.
Enriquez said that a motorcycle with two men stopped nearby, with the backrider suddenly pulling out a gun and shooting the victim several times in the body.
Despite his wounds, the victim still managed to run a few meters away but fell face down because of his wounds.
Enriquez said that the gunman got off the motorcycle and chased the victim when he saw the victim run and finished the victim in the head when he fell down a few meters away.
Enriquez said the assailants, who were wearing bonnets and helmets and were using a blue XRM Honda motorcycle without a plate number, fled after the attack.
Four spent shells, a magazine with eight bullets believed to be from a .45 caliber pistol were recovered from the crime scene.
Lapu-Lapu attack
At least six hours later, outside the Lapu-Lapu City Jail in Sitio Soong, Barangay Mactan in Lapu-Lapu City, a 44-year-old female visitor was shot dead by an unidentified gunman, who followed her as she left the jail.
Lowella Dellera of Lapu-Lapu City died after an unidentified gunman, wearing a red jacket, a ball cap and a pair of sunglasses, shot her in the head and neck as she left the jail at past 3 p.m. that day, said Chief Insp. Wayne Magbanua, Mactan Police Station chief, during a phone interview.
Dellera was visiting her boyfriend, a certain Etching, who was allegedly jailed there for illegal drugs.
Magbanua said that Dellera had just left the jail and was walking along with two female visitors when the assailant followed her and shot her.
The assailant then walked to a waiting motorcycle nearby and fled the area.
SPO1 Luisito Ernie of the Homicide Section of the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office said they recovered from the crime scene two spent shells and a slug believed to be that of .45 caliber pistol.
Ernie said that they were looking into illegal drugs as the motive in the attack, but they were not also discounting other possibilities in the attack.
Security cameras check
Meanwhile in the Canduman shooting, Enriquez said that they were looking at security cameras along the stretch of the area, hoping to get a clearer identification of the assailants.
Enriquez said that Manatad’s common-law wife claimed that an unidentified person was looking for the victim in their home a few days before the shooting.
Police are looking at the possibility that the killing was work-related as the victim was an inspector of the Raboni Security Agency and Manpower Services.
But Enriquez said they were not discounting other possibilities as well.
Manatad as cop
Chief Insp. Mercy Villaro, information officer of the Mandaue City Police Office, said that Manatad had a senior police officer 1 rank before he was re-assigned to the Police Holding Unit at the regional office in 2016 after he was found to have been positive of illegal drugs from a drug test in May 2016.
He was later transferred to PRO Cordillera in August of the same year.
Villaro also said that they had no copy yet of any dismissal order of Manatad.