Columnist’s slay not work-related — EPD

The Eastern Police District (EPD) said yesterday that the killing of tabloid columnist Nicolas Cervantes in Mandaluyong City last Tuesday was not work-related.

"We are still establishing the motive behind the slaying, but definitely it’s not related to his work as media practitioner," EPD director Chief Superintendent Charlemagne Alejandrino said.

Meanwhile, Superintendent Ericson Velasquez, Mandaluyong City police chief, dispatched two crack police teams yesterday to conduct a background check on Cervantes to determine who has the strongest motive to have him "silenced."

Velasquez said his men are also trying to set an interview with Cervantes’ family, including his two sons, who may be able to shed light into his killing, which he described as "well planned and designed."

"We are gathering every bit of information on Cervantes so we can find out who wanted him dead," Velasquez said.

Cervantes, 66, had just emerged from his house at the PNL condominium in Barangay Bato when he was gunned down by two men at 1:30 p.m. last Tuesday.

He sustained three gunshot wounds in the body and died while being rushed to the nearby hospital.

Police said Cervantes was shot with a caliber .45 automatic pistol.

Initial reports claimed the two gunmen casually boarded a passenger jeepney and escaped.

A one-page information sheet on Cervantes showed his active involvement in the chess and insurance business. He was also a varsity basketball player and track and field athlete at the De La Salle University from 1958 to 1961.

Relatives said Cervantes was a columnist of a tabloid in Surigao City and in other newspapers in Mindanao. He exposed mostly private companies evading payment of taxes, they claimed.

However, Alejandrino claimed they have information that Cervantes is now based in Manila and has not been practicing his profession in the last two years.

The EPD chief ordered Velasquez to coordinate with the law enforcement division of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to verify reports that he was an intelligence agent.

Relatives claimed the victim was on his way to report to the BIR office when he was gunned down.