BY DEXTER A. SEE
PARACELIS, Mountain province -- Elements of the police’s Task Force Paracelis seized several rounds of ammunitions inside the residence of a punong barangay linked to the gruesome murder of Paracelis town mayor Ceasar Rafael last Dec. 25 during the enforcement of a search warrant at Barangay Annat here recently.
Chief Supt. Eugene G. Martin, regional director of the Police Regional Office in the Cordillera, said 16 bullets for M-16 Armalite rifles were confiscated by TFP members inside the residence of Anonat punong barangay Romel Borboron Ambatali, leader of the notorious Ambatali gang and one of the suspects named in the brutal murder of Rafael.
The police team was armed with a search warrant issued by Judge Joseph Patnaan of the Regional Trial Court Branch 35 here. The search was done in the company of four competent witnesses as required by the procedures.
However, the police team failed to arrest Ambatali as he was not in his house when it was searched.
Martin ordered the task force to continuously track down the whereabouts of the feared Ambatali gang leader and arrest him at all cost so that he would answer in the proper forum the numerous charges, including the murder of Rafael, which were already filed against him.
Earlier, Rene Yadao, 32 and Bong Felix, 32, both of Anonat, Paracelis, surrendered to police and admitted their involvement in the Rafael murder as lookouts.
The third suspect, Tirso Abalos, 40, who is from the same barangay, was arrested by members of a task force last January 25, 2005.
The suspects confessed they were bothered by their conscience after the perpetration of the crime, thus, they opted to give up and inform authorities on the real score behind the mayor’s murder.
While welcoming the surrender and arrest of three out of the six suspects, Natonin town mayor Ana Marie Banaag, one of Rafael’s daughters, expressed fear that the real mastermind on his father’s murder is already inclined in allegedly killing the remaining suspects to “silence” them from telling the truth on who paid them to implement the murder when they are already in the custody of the police.
She challenged the provincial government and the police to make good their commitment to put a stop on the brewing tension in Paracelis and arrest the four remaining suspects so they will suffer the consequences of their acts.
Aside from Ambatali, the suspects who are still at large include kagawad Danny Agabao and brothers Tony and Boni Gumbi, who are also barangay tanods of Anonat.
No comments:
Post a Comment