Customs officer linked to slays

CEBU CITY — One of the two suspects in the recent ambush-slaying of two Customs officers here decided to tell all while in the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation, tagging another Customs officer as the alleged mastermind.

Juan Jesus Vergel de Dios, a driver of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS), claimed that he and Rustico Fernandez, an errand boy at the same office, were allegedly hired by the Customs officer to kill deputy collector for operations Eduardo Lao and examiner Bennet Soreno.

The Freeman could not reach the Customs officer for comment.

De Dios positively identified the Customs officer from his enlarged photo as the one who allegedly hired and paid him P5,000 three days after the killing.

Florentino Ortega, chief of the Customs’ assessment division, said he does not believe that the Customs officer masterminded the killing.

He expressed suspicion that De Dios was paid by the "real mastermind" to implicate the Customs officer.

The Customs officer was also suspected of having allegedly ordered the shooting of radio blocktimer Rey Cortez three months ago. Cortez survived the attack.

De Dios, who drives for CIIS chief Felix Espino who has since been relieved in the wake of the theft of two container vans of smuggled rice from Customs custody, was arrested by the NBI when he and Espino came last Tuesday afternoon to heed summonses for an investigation.

De Dios was arrested when witnesses told the NBI that he was one of the two men who attacked Lao and Soreno.

Fernandez had been in NBI custody earlier than De Dios after two port workers who facilitated the spiriting out of the two vans told the NBI that he was the one who recruited them.

The two vans were part of a shipment of 10 vans containing smuggled rice from Singapore that had been seized by Customs.

The NBI believes the killing of Lao and Soreno is tied to the seizure of the shipment because it was Lao who gave the order to seize the cargo.

The NBI said it has information that Fernandez was a former hit man of the communist New People’s Army in Mindanao, while De Dios is reportedly Espino’s cousin-in-law.

Crying, De Dios admitted driving the motorcycle used in the killing but said it was Fernandez who actually did the shooting.

He said he and Fernandez met at the Customs building and then boarded the motorcycle to wait for Lao to pass by Osmeña Boulevard, his usual route in going home.

He said that when Lao’s car stopped for a red light, he drove past it and Fernandez opened fire.

But it was not only Lao and Soreno who were killed. A high school student, Alain Dave Ravina, was fatally hit by a stray bullet.

De Dios said he did not actually know the target was Lao and only knew about it afterwards.— Freeman News Service