Cop chief: Man killed in Alcantara ambush is in Moalboal police’s drug watchlist

Police are still investigating the ambush in Alcantara town of a 47-year-old resident of Moalboal town, who had just attended a hearing in Barili town in southwestern Cebu.

Chief Insp. Rosemarie Acupinpin, police chief of Alcantara, a town 85.3 km from Cebu City, said that they were still gathering information about the killing of Edgar Gador of Barangay Tomonoy, Moalboal, a southern town 89 km from Cebu City.

However, Chief Insp. Jose Rovic Villarin, Moalboal Police Station chief, told Cebu Daily News in a phone interview that the victim, Edgar Gador, had been included in the police watchlist of drug personalities in Moalboal.

Although Gador was attending a hearing for a case of illegal possession of firearms in Barili, a town 61 km from Cebu City, before he was killed, Villarin said that Gador had also another pending case of possession of illegal drugs.

Initial investigation on Monday afternoon’s attack showed that that Gador was shot dead by two motorcycle-riding gunmen, who tailed him and his wife as they were heading home to Moalboal town on a motorcycle after attending the hearing in Barili town.

The motorcycle-riding assailants moved in at 3:30 p.m. after the Gador couple reached Barangay Poblacion in Alcantara town, 85.3 km southwest from Cebu City, with the backrider acting as the shooter.

Gador, who was driving the motorcycle with his wife as his passenger, was shot twice in the head, causing their motorcycle to crash.

Gador’s wife Merlina, suffered minor injuries in the crash and was not wounded in the attack since the target was her husband.

Villarin said Gador was later rushed to the Badian District Hospital for treatment, but doctors there declared him dead on arrival.

Villarin said that an illegal possession of firearms case was filed against Gador last year but he was released after he posted bail.