Police asset hacked by two wanted men

CEBU, Philippines - A police asset was hacked repeatedly last Monday morning allegedly by two men with pending warrants for informing the police regarding their illegal activities in Sitio Jubot, Barangay Talisay, Daanbantayan town.

Julito Orongan was walking towards Sitio Pungason, Barangay Maya when he was hacked by the suspects.

He was rushed to the Daanbantayan District Hospital with multiple hack wounds in different parts of his body but later transferred to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City.

Daanbantayan investigator PO2 Alfredo Mandal said Orongan was walking along the road when alleged assailants Renante Lagahit and his brother Gerry approached him and hacked him repeatedly.

Witnesses who passed by the area immediately brought Orongan to the hospital while the alleged assailants escaped.

Mandal suspects that personal grudge prompted the assailants to hack Orongan for being an informant of the police.

Mandal said that the family of the assailants is noted for criminal activity like armed robbery. Their younger sister Eva Lagahit is being detained for robbery while their father Eddie was arrested last year for arson.

Mandal said the four of them burned the house of another police asset but only Eddie was arrested for that crime.

Eddie and Eva now detained in the Daanbantayan police stockade.

Renante and Gerry both have a pending warrant of arrest for robbery while another case of frustrated murder will be filed against them for this latest incident.

Mandal told The FREEMAN that he was disappointed with the neighbors of the victim for not being cooperative with their investigation.

“Dili sila ganahan mangilabot kay sila na pud unya ang initan,” Mandal said.

A frustrated murder case will be filed against the alleged assailants at the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor’s Office within the week.

Meanwhile, a pedicab driver was unintentionally shot dead by his neighbor while the victim was heading home in Barangay Looc, Danao City, last Monday evening.

The victim who suffered a gunshot wound to the neck was identified as Jeffery Eugenio, 18, a native of Cagayan de Oro, while the suspect who was arrested and detained by a responding policeman was his neighbor Jonas Nuñez.

A medical team from the Danao Fire Department tried to revive Eugenio but failed.

Danao investigator Allan Muñoz said Nuñez and his live-in partner were having an argument when he suddenly fired his gun outside hitting Eugenio.

“Morag wala tuyo-a kay ingon ana man gyud kuno na siya kung mag-away sila sa iyang kaipon,” Muñoz said.

Muñoz said that Nuñez and Eugenio were not enemies as affirmed by their neighbors.

“Hilomon man sad nang biktima, dili tig-apil-apil og tapok-tapok aksidente lang gyud to,” he said.

Nuñez was arrested by their neighbor SPO3 Arestio Espina who turned over him to the responding police officers. Confiscated from him was a .45 cal. pistol.

The cadaver of the victim was brought to the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes in Danao City. Muñoz said they are still waiting for the family of the victim to file a criminal complaint against the suspect.

In Sibonga town also last Monday evening, a farmer was shot dead while having dinner inside his house at Barangay Manatad.

Arquilao Edullantes, 60, was shot in the chest by an unidentified man who hurriedly fled right after the incident.

According to SPO4 Rodilito Carillo of the Sibonga Police Station the victim was having dinner with his family when the suspect peeped inside their house and shot him once.

The family of the victim immediately called for help after the victim collapsed to the floor.

The responding police officers recovered an empty shell of a .45 cal. pistol, Carillo said they are still investigating the motive behind the crime. –  (FREEMAN)