Massive manhunt on for Cebu ‘killer cop’

CEBU CITY — The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force has joined the massive manhunt for a police officer who is wanted for the killing of a tricycle driver in Busay district last December and the shooting of a 16-year-old eyewitness to the crime.

Lawyer Salvador Solima admitted that his client, policeman Engelberto Durano, may have gone into hiding after getting word that a court warrant has been issued for his arrest.

A police team led by Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Division chief Pablo Labra II tried to serve the warrant on Durano at his residence in Gardenville, but he was nowhere to be found.

Solima claimed he was not aware of Durano’s whereabouts, saying he last had contact with him last Tuesday when he called for a press conference.

Durano appeared in public for the first time during the press conference since he went on absence without official leave (AWOL) shortly after the Dec. 22 killing of tricycle driver Rogelio Bacalso.

Durano and three other suspects were charged with murder for Bacalso’s death. An eyewitness, 16-year-old Lloyd Carampatan, pointed to Durano as the alleged triggerman.

Carampatan was subsequently placed under the government’s witness protection program but was befriended and lured out of Camp Sotero Cabahug, the Cebu City police headquarters, by a certain Roy and was shot in the head a few days ago.

Carampatan survived the attempt on his life but is now comatose in a local hospital.

Suspicions run high that Durano might have hired Roy to silence the eyewitness. The camp commander was relieved following the security breach. — Freeman News Service