BCPO: Revenge eyed as motive
in brutal slay of jeepney driver

Revenge was the motive of the suspect who brutally killed and robbed a jeepney driver at about 7 p.m. Saturday at the Bacolod City reclamation area, Senior Supt. Ricardo de la Paz, city police director, said yesterday.

Initial investigation showed that the suspect, Joven Valencia, 25, of Purok Pine Tree in Brgy. Bata, Bacolod, was blaming the victim, Ernesto Caminto, 40, of Georgina Subdivision, Brgy. Mandalagan for the firing of his father as a driver of Pads Lines, de la Paz said.

It was a premeditated killing, so the police are filing murder charges against the suspect who is now detained at Police Station 2, he said.

He also said evidences against Valencia are strong as they have a witness, and the a bladed weapon used in stabbing the victim was seized from the suspect.

An improvised sheath for a bladed weapon recovered from Caminto’s jeepney fit perfectly the weapon seized from Valencia, he also said.

Valencia was arrested four hours after the incident, when a trisikad driver told the police that he was the last person seen riding the jeepney of Caminto before he was found wounded, Police Officer 2 Christopher Profeta, said.

Although Caminto’s wrist watch, P920 in cash and cellular phone were still with him, his wallet containing an undetermined amount of cash, was missing, police records show.*LTG

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Nifras son still a suspect, cops say,
victim advised to execute affidavit

Senior Supt. Ricardo de la Paz is requesting the taxi driver who was robbed in Purok Tonggoy, Brgy. Mandalagan, Bacolod City, on Oct. 26 to execute an affidavit on his statements and allegations to be used in their investigation.

Taxi driver Carlito Gallano, 54, of Brgy. 4, Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental, was robbed by three unidentified persons at about 1 a.m. in front a fast food restaurant at B.S. Aquino Drive where the son of Bacolod City Agriculturist Goldwyn Nifras was involved.

De la Paz said the sworn statement of the taxi driver is necessary because a minor is involved, and Insp. Jovy Cabcaban head of the Women and Children’s Protection Desk is conducting the investigation.

He also said they cannot determine yet the involvement of Nifras’s son but the child is still considered as a suspect.

Nifras had earlier told the DAILY STAR that his son, after alighting from the taxi had fled to the Georgina Subdivision to seek help, thinking that the suspects were chasing him.

He said his son met a tanod who helped him look for the suspects. As his son was resting at the gate of the subdivision, Gallano, with the tricycle driver Julius Gonzales, and his companion, Stephen De la Rosa Dela Rosa, both of Brgy. Mandalagan arrived in the area.

Though the two parties have given contradictory statements, de la Paz said that there is no cover-up in the incident and the investigation is being conducted based on the statements of the witnesses.

He added that they will issue an official statement after completing the investigation.*LTG

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Military says no whitewash
in probe of civilians’ death

Military authorities assured the public there will be no whitewash in probing the death of three civilians and the wounding of another in the Oct. 22 encounter between members of the 27th Infantry Battalion and a group of armed men in Sitio Aliong, Barangay Kimlawis, Kiblawan, Davao del Sur.

Lt. Colonel Lyndon Paniza, spokesperson of the 10th Infantry Division, said Major General Ariel Bernardo, commander of the unit himself pursued the investigation to come up with findings immediately.

Paniza said that the military would also abide with the results of the probe of other investigating bodies. The rules of engagement will be the basis of investigation in determining the probable violation of the troops on this incident, he said.

Major Jacob Thaddeus Obligado, commanding officer of the 10th Civil-Military Operations, said the 13 soldiers involved in the encounter were being investigated by the Board of Inquiry set by the 10th Infantry Division.

He said the military were coordinating closely with the Kiblawan Municipal Office, Commission on Human Rights 12 and the Diocese of Koronadal to investigate and assist the affected family, respectively.

Obligado said the incident happened when soldiers, led by 1Lt. Dante Jimenez, responded to a tip about the presence of Daguil Capeon, a person with strings of arrest warrants in the Sitio Aliong, a far-flung community of Kiblawan.

The Kiblawan Police was able to reach the site past 1 p.m. to investigate the incident after the request of the 27th IB commanding officer, Lt. Colonel Alexis Bravo, he said.

Obligado said Bravo was relieved as commander of Task Force KITACO, the unit that oversees the peace and order in Kiblawan, Tampakan and Columbio.

Due to the incident, the military reminded all soldiers to follow at all time the rules of engagement by using force only as self-defense in the face of an imminent danger to lives even combat operations. Obligado said the rules of engagement clearly stated that the use of force could be used only if an attack was used against the soldier, members of his unit and the civilians.*PNA

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