Police: List of names may provide leads to radio blocktimer’s killers

Police Colonel Josefino Ligan, director of the Cebu City Police Office, leads the first case conference with the members of the Special Investigation Task Group (SITG), who will be investigating the killing of radio blocktimer Reynante Cortes. | Pegeen Maisie Sararana

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Police already have a list of names to look into, who may provide them with leads in the investigation of the July 22 killing of radio blocktimer, Reynante Cortes.

The names surfaced after the first meeting of members of the Special Investigation Task Group (SITG), who is tasked to investigate the killing of Cortes, said Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO).

“Lead as to the person, dili pa. Pero lead nga activities, duna nata…wala pa gyuy nagpatum-aw nga witnesses sa karon,” Parilla said.

(Lead as to the person, not yet, but lead to activities, we have that … there are still no witnesses who showed up.)

The SITG, in this case, is a group of policemen whose task is to focus on the investigation of the killing of the radio blocktimer.

For now, Parilla said that they were considering Cortes’ job as a media practitioner as the primary reason for his death.

He also said that they were not discounting the possibility that this had something to do with his personal affairs.

Parilla added that they were also asking permission from the family to recover the phone owned by Cortes so they could extract necessary information that might also help them with their investigation.

As to the firearm used, Parilla said that they had yet to receive the result of the ballistic examination after the personnel from the Scene of the Crime Operatives recovered two deformed slugs from the body of Cortes.

He said that pending the result, they could not disclose what possible caliber of the gun used.

Statements from Close-In

Parilla said that the close-in individuals of Cortes when the incident happened had already given their official statement. For now, the two bodyguards are temporarily considered as witnesses because they also had yet to get the side of Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak who was also inside the radio station when the incident happened.

“Ganina, didto na sa station (Mambaling), gikuhaan na og statement ang mga close in niya. Maconsider nato nga witnesses, as of now,” he said.

(We were at the station (Mambaling). We got the statements of the closs in security. They can be considered as witnesses.)

He said that they would be comparing the official statements of the bodyguards and Tumulak.

Parilla said that they would also be interrogating these close-in individuals on why they asked help from Tumulak, considering that they possibly knew how to drive, and instead, should have immediately brought Cortes to the hospital.

For now, police did not confiscate any firearm from these bodyguards.

PNP Chief to solve the case immediately

With regard to the directives relayed to them by the chief of the Philippine National Police General Guillermo Eleazar to solve the case immediately as possible, Parilla said that they would adhere to this and assured that they would use their resources to solve this case.

Aside from that, Undersecretary Joel Egco of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security had also been monitoring and coordinating with the CCPO on the progress of the investigation of the killing of Cortes.

Egco said this was because international media outlets had also been asking for results on the investigation of the case.

“Sa atoa lang no, dili lang nato ipaniguro nga atong masulbad but atong buhaton ang kutob sa atoang mahimo para masulbad ni ang kaso,” Parilla said.

(For us, we cannot be sure that the case would be solved, but we will do what we can to solve the case.)

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