IF only to unlock the mystery behind the spate of murders in Cebu, the mother of one of the five victims in the shooting incident in Barangay Malubog, Cebu City expressed willingness to testify in the Senate inquiry into these killings.
“Mao na ang akong gipaabot nga panahon. (This is the time that I have been waiting for),” said Emily Abella, whose son Lester was gunned down in what she believed was a case of summary execution last month.
Should she be summoned to testify, she said she would be more than ready to appear in the Senate hearing.
Abella said she believed that justice will be given in due time.
“Nag ampo ko kanunay niini. (I’m always praying for this),” she said.
Meanwhile, Senior Supt. Royina Garma, director of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said they continue to investigate the summary execution of the five persons along the Transcentral Highway in Barangay Malubog, Cebu City last Oct. 4.
In an interview on Thursday, she said they now have the results of the examinations conducted by the Regional Crime Laboratory regarding the pieces of evidence gathered in the crime scene.
Garma said one of the five victims tested positive for gunpowder nitrates.
She declined to identify the person or give any conclusion, as the investigation is not over yet.
She added they were also verifying with the Firearms and Explosives Division (FED) as to who owned one of the four firearms seen at the crime scene.
“We identified the serial number of one firearm. But we are waiting for the report of FED since they are the only one who can confirm who owns it,” she said.
Garma said the cellular phones recovered from the victims also showed that two of them had transactions involving illegal drugs.
Some Cebu policemen had been linked to at least three separate shooting incidents in the past three months — an allegation denied by the local police.
Chief Supt. Debold Sinas, director of the Central Visayas police, on Wednesday told Cebu Daily News that some policemen have been moonlighting as hitmen of drug personalities and they were now investigating who are these scalawags in uniform.
The Senate Committee on Public Order is now working on the final schedule of the Senate inquiry into the killings in Cebu.
The minority bloc allied with the Liberal Party LP and Sen. Grace Poe earlier filed separate resolutions seeking a probe into Cebu’s spate of killings.
Poe’s resolution cited the deaths of village officials, local chief executives, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA-7) agents and of four-year-old Bladen Skyler Abatayo, the boy who was killed by a stray bullet during a botched police operation in Bato, Ermita in Cebu City last July.