A former policemanlinked to the kidnap-slay of former Bacolod Brgy. Capt. Eleuterio Salabas and his two companions in 2003, is facing an additional charge of murder, for the fatal shooting of a civilian on April 6 in Cauayan, Negros Occidental.

In his report to Senior Supt. Allan Guisihan, provincial police director of Negros Occidental, Chief Inspector Romeo Leyte, Cauayan police chief, said they filed murder charges against former Police Officer 2 Dennis Belandres before the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office on April 10, in connection with the death of John Rey Reyes.

Reyes was gunned down allegedly by Belandres, with a .45 caliber pistol, in Sitio Tambo, Brgy. Inayawan, Cauayan, in an incident reportedly triggered by drunkenness, police investigations show.

A day after the incident, Belandres, who had been hiding from authorities for several years for arbitrary detention and murder, gave himself up to the Cauayan Police Station, through the help of a barangay official.

Belandres and ex-PO2 Ruel Villacanas, who is also at-large and charged for the kidnap-slay of Salabas, Maximo Lomoljo and Ricardo Suganob, were also implicated in the fatal shooting of a certain Ruliben Leganipa, 20, in Hacienda Bilbao, Brgy. Punta Mesa, Manapla in May 2007, police records also show.

Before the surrender of Belandres, four other kidnap-slay suspects identified as former police officers Clarence Dongail, Jimmy Fortaleza, Bonifer Gotas and Freddie Natividad had been acc