MCPO chief to Canes family: Submit couple’s gadgets for investigation

Colonel Julian Entoma, MCPO director | Rosalie O. Abatayo

MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — Instead of defending the couple through social media, Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO) is encouraging the relatives and friends of Michael and Fraldine Kate Canes to help in their investigation and find the real culprits.

In an interview on Monday, April 22,  Colonel Julian Entoma, MCPO director, said they had not made significant progress in their investigation yet with the lack of supporting evidence that could point to the perpetrators.

Read more: Police have vital witness in Mandaue couple shooting

“So far wala pay niari sa amoa but ari nuon sa social media mo-vouch sa credibility sa couple. Kung ari diri ang effort sa social media, magiging useless man gud,” said Entoma.

(So far, nobody has come to us, but here in social media, many have vouched about the credibility of the couple. If they had only come to us to vouch for the couple’s credibility then it would not have been a useless effort. If they do it on social media and not come to us, these efforts are all useless.)

Entoma is encouraging the family of the Canes couple to submit to authorities if there were indeed gadgets like laptops and extra cellphones so they could subject them to forensic examination.

Read more: Police ask friends, relatives of killed Mandaue couple to help with investigation

According to Entoma, they did not recover any gadget from the couple when they responded to the shooting alarm. 

Motorcycle-riding assailants shot dead the couple while traversing along SB Cabahug Street and AC Cortes Avenue in Barangay Ibabao, Mandaue City, around 11 pm on April 14.

Read more: Mandaue couple came from RTW shop’s clearance sale before Sunday night killing

“Kung dunay lain nga mga gadgets, pwede ma nato i-submit sa cybercrime para atong makita unsa ang mga previous transactions. Kung atong makita ga puros online ra gyud ang iyang transaction then so be it, i-rule out nato nga wala didto (business) nga angulo,” said Entoma.

(If there are gadgets, then we can submit these to the cybercrime department so that we can find out what the couple’s previous transactions were. If we can see that their business are all online transactions then so be it, we can rule out their business as a possible angle for cause of the attack.)

Read more: MCPO: Michael Canes in 2018 watch list

Entoma said that while they stood firm about Michael Canes alleged links to the drug trade based on their records, they were still looking at other angles in solving the case. 

He said that they were also exploring the possibility that Fraldine Kate was only collateral damage to the crime.

“Ang atong record mao man na atong nakita nga personality sa victim nga lalaki plus the other nga nagsupport nga mao ni ang certain alyas nila sa grupo sa matrix nila ni Encila (Jocelyn Encila) ,” said Entoma.

(Our records alongside other supporting evidence show the personality of the male victim as one referred to in the drug matrix of Jocelyn Encila.)

The MCPO, earlier, said that Michael Canes was included in the drug watchlist of Mandaue City Police Station 5 in Barangay Opao since October 2018. | dbs