Pamplona Mayor Janice Degamo. | CDND photo / Pegeen Maisie Sararaña
DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental — The gunmen, who barged into the Degamo residence in Pamplona town, made sure that Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo was dead.
The autopsy that was conducted on the late governor showed that he sustained a total of 11 gunshot wounds on his body, including his heart.
His wife and Pamplona Mayor Janice Degamo said the bullet wound on his heart caused the governor’s death.
“Naa toy mga 11 ka igo pero pinaka fatal ang heart…matod pa sa doctor, beyond repair ang heart. Kung kato lang ubang parte, tiil, buko-buko…kana mahimo pang masalbar pero kaning atoang kasingkasing, wala gyud. Usa gyud ka very powerful gun ang gigamit,” Janice said.
(He sustained 11 gunshot wounds and the most fatal of which was on his heart. According to the doctor, his heart was already beyond repair. With the wounds on the other parts of his body like his feet and back, he would have survived but not with the bullet on his heart. This shows us that high powered firearms were used on him.)
Earlier, authorities recovered several high powered firearms and explosives from the arrested suspects and at a plantation in Barangay Cansumalig in Bayawan City. These includes five assault rifles, 1 B40 (RPG) with five ammunition and four bandoliers.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Gerard Ace Pelare, spokesperson of the Special Investigation Task Group (SITG), said that personnel of the Firearms Explosives Office at the Police Regional Office (PRO-7) are now checking the firearms that were recovered in Bayawan City.
As of this posting, Pelare said they continue to determine how the suspects acquired the high-powered firearms and explosives.
Law enforcers have so far arrested four suspects in the killing of the Negros Oriental governor and eight others. They are Joric Labrador, an ex-army personnel and a resident of Cagayan de Oro; Joven Aber, an ex-army ranger and a resident of Barangay Robles in La Castellana, Negros Occidental; Benjie Rodriguez, a native of Mindanao, and Osmundo Rivero, an ex-army from Zamboanga City.
The Degamo family and the families of three other victims have filed complaints for multiple murder, multiple frustrated murder, and illegal possession of firearms and explosives against the suspects on Monday, March 6.
Authorities, on the other hand, continue their hot pursuit operations against at least five to seven other suspects who remain at large.
Janice and her family strongly believe that politics was behind the governor’s brutal killing. Eight others were killed with Degamo while 14 individuals were wounded.
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