Abra cops arrest gun-for-hire; mastermind charged

CAMP DANGWA, LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Around nine hours after a “hit” by a gun-for-hire, Abra police arrested the look-out and lodged murder raps against the hitman and mastermind.

Cordillera police director Chief Supt. Eugene Martin told newsmen the trio will be jailed the rest of their lives in jail for killing Renato Babida Bose in front of the St.
James Cathedral in Bangued town after the Sunday mass around 9:15 a.m.

Abra intelligence and investigation operatives and Ban­gued policemen under the direction of Senior Supt. Alexander Pumecha immediately tracked down 23-year-old Roldan Gonzales alias Jong, in Sta. Maria town, Ilocos Sur around 6:25 p.m. also on July 6.

Chief Inspectors Melvin Napiloy of the Abra police intelligence and investigation branch and Joseph Bayongasan of the Bangued police station found out from Gonzales, who drove the getaway vehicle after the “hit” that a certain Rolly Torres was paid as the triggerman.

Police also found out a certain Alfredo Gazmen allegedly paid them P20,000 for the “hit.”

On June 7, policemen charged the trio for murder before Abra Prosecutor Noel
Tolentino.

Martin said the hitman and the mastermind will have no place to hide as “the long arm of the law will catch them and answer for their dastardly act.”

This, the police official said amidst criticisms by Abra police detractors.

“Not a single case of killings in the province have been solved,” said lawyer Estelita Cordero, counsel and spokesperson of Tineg town mayor Edwin Crisologo, a critic of Martin.

Earlier, Crisologo led some residents to petition Police Director General Avelino Razon to axe Martin as regional police director and Pumecha as Abra police director for the reported unsolved killings in the province.

Martin however said “Abra now is more peaceful,” as goons linked to politicians have been clamped down by the DILG-instituted Task Force Abra.

Gov. Eustaquio Bersamin said with Martin and Pumecha around, the peace and order situation in the province, which earned the tag “Cordillera killings fields, “is under control and has improved a lot.”