Liloan shooting NBI: Gunmen not our agents

CEBU, Philippines - National Bureau of Investigation-7 director Antonio Pagatpat said that the three unidentified armed men who shot dead a suspected drug pusher in Liloan Tuesday last week were not NBI agents.

Pagatpat said his agent assigned to verify the information reported that the gunmen who killed Juanito Martinez, 36, in Poblacion, Liloan on April 23 actually introduced themselves as personnel of the Land Transportation Office and not NBI as earlier reported.

Martinez, resident of Barangay Carreta, Cebu City, was on board a motorcycle driven by his nephew, Niño Martinez, when the three assailants flagged them down. The assailants asked for the victim's license before he was shot several times.

 Pagatpat said he sent an agent to investigate the incident after it was reported that the assailants introduced themselves as NBI agents. However, based on the statements given by the family of the victim, the gunmen actually claimed to be LTO agents.

Liloan police chief, Insp. Leo Ty, admitted that they remain clueless of the identity of the gunmen.

Ty said that the witness did not also see the faces of the gunmen because he closed his eyes upon hearing the gunshots. Martinez succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds. — Mylen P. Manto and Ria Mae Y. Booc/FPL