No clues yet on ARMM exec’s slay

COTABATO CITY — Investigators are still facing a blank wall regarding Friday’s murder on a busy street here of a key official of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the seventh killing in the city since Nov. 1.

Senior Superintendent Ajijul Taradji, city police chief, said the killers of Richard Lanzaderas, finance head of the ARMM’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources, escaped on board a motorcycle immediately after they repeatedly shot him with caliber .45 automatics.

Taradji said investigators are convinced that the gunmen both knew Lanzaderas and were aware that he was a multi-awarded member of a local pistol shooting club, prompting them to make sure they felled him first before he could draw his gun.

Taradji, however, said they are not discounting the possibility that the gunmen had planned to rob Lanzaderas and his staffer, who were returning to their office after withdrawing some P2 million in payroll money from a bank in the downtown area.

The gunmen stopped the red vehicle of Lanzaderas and, without warning, opened fire. They, however, failed to take the money as they hurriedly fled.

"Maybe, because the victim refused to pull over and they were aware that he was a trained shooter, they immediately neutralized him," Taradji said.

The DENR-ARMM has been the subject of criticisms lately for failing to address mounting complaints from various sectors about the wanton cutting of trees in watersheds across Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.