A drug group that recently offered a bribe to the Bacolod City Police Anti-Illegal Drug Special Operations Task Group that they refused, is being eyed in the fatal shooting of Police Officer 3 Rolando Malate, City Police Director Senior Supt. Ricardo de la Paz said yesterday.

De la Paz said this development came out during the case conference by the members of the “Task Force Malate” held at the City Police headquarters Saturday. He added that the group had offered a huge amount of money to the CAIDSTOG members so they will not be busted.

He said the emissary of the drug group told the CAIDSTOG members that since they refused the bribe, it will be used instead to pay hired gunmen to kill them.

Investigation also showed that a day before the killing of Malate, there were witnesses who noticed the presence of the suspects at the junction of Hernaez and Jovita streets, where the shooting happened at about 7 a.m. Thursday.

The investigation also showed that on Monday, one of the policemen who was with Malate in a coffee shop at the same area, noticed a man staring at Malate.

The description of that man was similar to the description of the driver of the motorcycle that the gunman used as getaway vehicle, De la Paz said. Malate was the first one to be assassinated among all the CAIDSTOG personnel as the suspects must have learned his routine, he added.

As of yesterday, the Task Force Malate had already set aside personal grudge as the motive for Malate’s killing.

Meanwhile, Bacolod City policemen are using the social network site Facebook to help resolve the killing of Malate.

One of the policemen posted “We are calling the help of everyone for the speedy solution of the case and the arrest of the suspects”.

De la Paz said they are at a loss as to the identities of the suspects and will use all means to resolve the case of Malate, since PNP Director General Nicanor Bartolome had ordered an immediate solution of the case.

He said they are appealing to whoever had witnessed the crime, or has knowledge about it to come out.

Malate, 43, of Celine Homes Subdivision in Brgy. Estefania, Bacolod had brought his children Ramon Jr., 15, and Hannah, 14, to Tay Tung High School and was on his way to a coffee shop at the junction of Hernaez and Jovita streets, near the school, with his younger daughter, Alexa, 10, when one of two men riding in tandem on a red Kawazaki motorcycle shot him at close range while he was about to alight from his car.

He sustained four gunshot wounds on his chest, two on his neck and one on his right ear and died while being treated at the Bacolod Adventist Hospital, police records showed.

He will be laid to rest on Sunday at the Roselawns Memorial Park in Brgy. Bata, Bacolod City.*APN

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