Police Colonel Joie Yape | Contributed photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Special Investigation and Task Group (SITG) for the case of Police Lieutenant Colonel Joie Yape, now have names of persons whom the officer was in conflict with during his time as the chief of the Cebu Police Provincial Office Provincial Intelligence Branch (CPPO-PIB).
Police Colonel Geovanie Maines, officer-in-charge of Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) and supervisor of SITG Yape case, told reporters Monday, December 2, 2019, that they were doing a follow-up monitoring of these people who resurfaced in their ongoing investigation.
Maines, however, withheld the name of the persons as they were still subject for verification.
“Mayroong mga na report doon na allegedly names ng mga tao na naka-alitan nya before,” said Maines.
(There were reports that these persons were allegedly in conflict with him [Yape].)
Maines said they are also contacting the wife of Yape, Lovely Yape, who agreed to cooperate with them once her husband was laid to rest.
Maines said they would need to have a proper conversation with Lovely Yape, to get more details of the activities of the slain police officer after he was assigned in Cebu.
Lieutenant Colonel Yape was walking along the Sitio Molave, Barangay Kamputhaw, Cebu City, past 5 p.m. on Thursday, November 21, 2019, when unidentified men onboard a motorcycle shot him dead.
Yape was on allegedly his way to meet his wife in an establishment in the area to have dinner with her.
Read more: Cebu City police forms Special Intelligence Task Group to look into cop’s murder
Meanwhile, Maines said he had asked his station commanders to provide him with progress reports about the recent shooting incidents in the city.
Maines order came after he noticed several unsolved killing incidents in Cebu City.
“Those series of shooting incidents are not acceptable to me,” said Maines.
Maines aid he had reminded the station commanders that all the killings must be solved especially those victims, who were ordinary individuals.
Last Friday, November 29, a woman was shot dead inside her home at Block 3 Missionaries, Barangay Suba, Cebu City at 12:30 a.m.
The victim was identified later as Vicenta Abaño, the daughter of Alejandro Abaño, former captain of Barangay Jagoliao, an island-village of Getafe, Bohol, who was also shot inside his home in the island last June.
The San Nicolas Police officers handling the case were looking at personal grudge against the Abaño family as a possible motive for the killing, as she was the fourth member of her family that was shot in a span of five months.
In Barangay Pulangbato, Cebu City, on the other hand, another woman with a gunshot wound was found along the road past 6 in the morning of the same day.
Read more: Talamban cops checking background of woman found dead in Pulangbato
Talamban police said they were still checking the background of the woman to help them in the investigation of the case.| dbs