Drug angle eyed in Poro police chief’s killing

Senior Insp. Jonas Tahanlangit. (CONTRIBUTED)

POLICE are looking at the illegal drug angle as a possible motive in the daring daylight ambush-killing of Poro Police chief Senior Insp. Jonas Tahanlangit.

Senior Supt. Clifford Gairanod, director of the Cebu Provincial Police Office, yesterday vowed to make the perpetrators pay even as he urged his men to be careful.

“I have already issued marching orders to all officers in my command:  they should be always mindful especially now that we have a strong campaign against illegal drugs. These drug personalities have money and guns, they can always avail of legal services when they get involved in a crime,”  Gairanod said.

He said they have the names of the two gunmen who are believed to be hired killers of a “big-time” drug syndicate operating in Cebu.

“We already have our leads. We even have names. It is just a matter of right timing for the arrest of these suspects,” Gairanod said in a press briefing.

“I will not name names because we need to get back. It is very insulting on our part that they weren’t afraid to kill a town police chief,” he added.

Poro Mayor Luciano Rama, Jr., for his part, said he wasn’t ruling out the involvement of a drug syndicate in the killing.

“It is possible, but I don’t have proof because all I hear are rumors,” he told Cebu Daily News.

Tahanlangit had gone to Cebu City on Monday to attend a court hearing. He went back to Camotes on the same day and was driving his black pick-up truck more than a kilometer from the port in Consuelo, San Francisco town when two men on a motorcycle ambushed him.

The police chief was in civilian clothes and unarmed because of the election gun ban. Gairanod said police officers are not allowed to bring guns when in civilian clothes.

Tahanlangit died from two gunshot wounds on his neck and left shoulder.  His remains were brought to the St. Peter’s Funeral Homes in Imus yesterday for autopsy.

His passengers, 19-year-old Ryan Sampan, son of barangay Santa Cruz captain, and Teresa Ann Montalban, daughter of his trusted farm caretaker, were wounded. Both are now in stable condition.

As of yesterday, police were still getting footages from the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed in the ports of Danao City and San Francisco to identify the assailants, who might have followed Tahanlangit when he boarded the boat going to Camotes Islands.

Police described the assailants as young adults, with one sporting a long hair, probably a wig, wearing no helmets nor bonnets.

Gairanod said Tahanlangit has been providing  intelligence information on the illicit drug trade in Poro.

He allegedly received death threats prior to the ambush and shared his apprehensions with San Francisco police chief Insp. Philip Libres, Gairanod said.

Mayor Rama said he wasn’t aware of any threat on Tahanlangit’s life, but knew that the officer led several anti-illegal drug operations in the town since he assumed office last year.

The mayor described Tahanlangit as a good police chief.

Inspector Libres of San Francisco was leading the hot pursuit operations against the two gunmen.

Gairanod said he has sent additional troops to Poro to help in the manhunt. A replacement for Tahanlangit has yet to be named.