Man tagged in Naga trader’s murder charged

CEBU, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation-7 has filed a criminal complaint on Thursday against a man accused of killing a businessman in Barangay Tuyan, City of Naga.

Lawyer Renan Oliva, supervising agent of the bureau, filed the murder complaint against Van Vincent Mabanag, a resident of Tuyan, and two unidentified persons before the Naga City Prosecutor’s Office.

NBI-7 Regional Director Max Salvador said the incident happened on November 19, 2013 at around 8:30 a.m. when the victim, Renante Bacus, was in his store, Bacus Construction Supply, in Tuyan.

“At that time, Bacus had just finished talking to the painter of his vehicles when a person wearing bonnet, heavy-built, wearing a black jacket and black pants approached him and shot him several times in the head which caused his death,” the document read.

NBI’s investigation stemmed from the complaint filed by Pedro Bacus, the brother of the victim.

Jerry Dantes in his sworn statement said he just finished talking to the victim for the painting job when a person wearing a bonnet appeared and shot the victim. He added respondent aimed his firearm at him prompting him to run away and hide behind a post.

Dantes added respondent also aimed his gun at other employees of the store.

Furthermore, Dantes said he saw two motorcycles, a black Honda Wave driven by a man medium-built, short in height, with brown complexion and a moustache wearing black t-shirt and pants and a baseball cap.

The other motorcycle, Dantes said, was a blue XRM driven by a male person, slim in built, tall in height, wearing black t-shirt, pants and baseball cap.

Dantes identified the respondent through picture lineup to be the one who allegedly fired at the victim.

Meanwhile, on January 20, 2014, Salvador said at around 5:30 p.m., respondent together with Jennel Librea, allegedly armed with handguns and onboard their respective motorcycles fired with the Minglanilla Police in Barangay Tunghaan, Minglanilla, Cebu.

Librea reportedly died in a shootout. —/JMD (FREEMAN)