Cebu City police forms Special Intelligence Task Group to look into cop’s murder

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) has formed a city level Special Intelligence Task Group (SITG) for the case of slain Police Lieutenant Colonel Joie Yape Jr., the former chief of the Cebu Police Provincial Office Police Intelligence Branch (CPPO-PIB).

Police Brigadier General Valeriano De Leon, director of Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), told reporters on Friday, November 22, 2019, that the officers in charge have of the SITG have started gathering the data for the investigation.

Yape was walking with his wife along the street in Sito Molave, Barangay Kamputhaw, Cebu City, past 5 p.m. on Thursday, November 21, 2019, when men onboard a motorcycle shot him several times before escaping the area.

Read: Former PIB chief, Yape, shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Cebu City

The officer later succumbed to gunshot wounds he sustained in the back of his head, nape and his back.

According to De Leon, they are looking into the possibility that Yape’s killing was work related.

Yape was formerly the chief of PIB under CPPO in 2017, and handled high profile cases such as the raid in the house of late Medillin town Mayor Ricardo Ramirez.

Yape is currently assigned to the Internal Affairs Services (IAS) in Camp Crame after an assignment in Calbayog City, Samar.

“Probably may relation sa mga jobs nya before dito,” said Maines. (Probably there’s a relation with his job here before.) 

Police Colonel Geovanie Maines, OIC of CCPO also the commander of the SITG for Yape’s case, said they still have no suspects but are monitoring a few individuals based on the background information of Yape.

Maines disclosed that Yape did not receive any threats prior to the incident, based on the statement of his wife, Lovely Yape.

Lovely told reporters on Friday that she can’t think of someone who would plan to do the crime as her husband had encountered arrests involving personalities mostly included in the narco list of President Rodrigo Duterte.

“Naghinaot ko nga iyahang mga nakauban sa trabaho diri sa Cebu nga matabangan mi sa dali nga pag sulbad sa pagpatay sa akong bana,” Lovely said.

(I am hoping that his previous colleagues here in Cebu would be able to help us in solving the case of my husband.)

Yape was in Cebu City to attend a three-day seminar and a hearing hours before his killing. Police however, are still verifying what the hearing case was about. /bmjo