Executive Master Sergeant Junard Cinco / Photo from PRO-7
CEBU CITY, Philippines — A week after Police Executive Master Sergeant Junard Cinco was killed in an ambush last April 30 in Toledo City, a city in midwestern Cebu. Police still have no lead on the identity of the killers.
Lieutenant Colonel Janetter Rafter, Toledo City Police Office chief, told CDN Digital in a phone interview on Tuesday, May 7, that they still had no suspects in the killing of Cinco.
Read more: Cop assigned at CPPO’s drug enforcement unit killed in Toledo City ambush
Cinco, who was a member of the Provincial Intelligence Branch-Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit (PIB-PDEU) of the Cebu Provincial Police Office, was killed by two gunmen on a motorcycle, a day after his unit’s operation against a drug suspect, who had allegedly taken over the outfit of a drug lord, who was killed inside the jail.
The April 29 operation led to the death of the drug suspect and his cohort.
Read more: Cops take out most wanted man in Cebu in San Nicolas shootout
Rafter said that they were still considering the possibility of retaliation from drug personalities who were the subject of a police operation, whom Cinco was a part of, a day before he was killed.
His death prompted the Brigadier General Debold Sinas, Police Regional Office in Central Visayas director, to order CPPO to form tracker teams and conduct a hot pursuit operation in Barangay Sudlon, which led to the fateful “misencounter” of fellow police officers from PIB-PDEU tracker teams and a Cebu City Police Office police officer living in the barangay.
Read more: Sinas: Corporal Yballe died in a misencounter with fellow police officers
The misencounter led to the death of Police Corporal Feliciano Yballe, resulting to the halt of the operations of the PIB-PDEU unit and the relief of the 18 police officers in the unit pending investigation.
Read more: Sinas: Police unit’s operations halted as 18 cops in Sudlon ‘misencounter’ probed
Despite this challenge of handling the investigation of the killing, Rafter said that she continued to be hopeful to solve the killing and find the perpertrators and arrest them.
“We are considering every angle. We are looking into possible motives in line of his work, maybe his family and even his personal life, we really cannot say,” said Rafter.
Rafter also said that Cinco would be laid to rest this Saturday, May 11, at 1 p.m. in Barangay Lutopan, Toledo City. /dbs