One of the suspects in the alleged plot to kill Asturias Vice Mayor Joel Dumdum six months ago was shot dead Tuesday evening in barangay Looc Norte of the same town in Cebu.
Archie Alvarado, also known as “Chedax”, was on his way home after playing basketball in barangay Poblacion when two men in tandem on a black motorcycle shot him six times in the back.
SP01 John Philip Acaso, homicide investigator of the Asturias municipal police, said the attackers waited for Alvarado at a gasoline station.
Bystanders rushed Alvarado to the hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.
Police recovered six empty .35 cal. shells from the crime scene.
Alvarado was arrested early February after he was named by the leader of a gun-for-hire gang as among those involved in a plot to assassinate Vice Mayor Dumdum.
He was arrested and charged with illegal possession of firearms after a .45 cal. pistol was found in his possession.
Alvarado likewise admitted his involvement in the slay plot and allegedly told the police that he will cooperate with them on the case.
He was released from detention in March after posting bail.
The plot to kill the vice mayor was foiled after the Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB) and the Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG) who were in an operation in barangay Nangka, Balamban town chanced upon Jonathan Rubi, who is one of the wanted personalities in Cebu.
Rubi allegedly tried to engage the lawmen in a gunfight, but an officer beat him to the draw and shot him in the thigh.
During the interrogation, Rubi revealed that he was on his way to meet his cohort, Edgar Escalante, who was waiting in barangay Poblacion, Asturias town. Police immediately went to the area and found Escalante who was killed in the ensuing shootout.
Supt. Rodolfo Albotra, head of the PIB, said the plot against Vice Mayor Dumdum were recorded in text messages retrieved from the suspects’ phones. The plan was to ambush Dumdum outside his house.
Albotra also said they are not discounting the possibility that Alvarado was liquidated because he volunteered to be a state witness in the assassination plot.
Dumdum, a member of the Liberal party and a cousin of Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Simeon Dumdum Jr., has been getting death threats after winning his last term during the May 2013 elections.