Triggerman in broadcaster’s slay nabbed

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – The suspected triggerman in the November 2013 killing of Valencia City, Bukidnon broadcaster Joas Dignos was arrested yesterday.

In a press conference, Senior Superintendent Pedro Austria, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Region 10 director, said his men were able to collar 22-year-old Dionesio Daulong in a raid in Barangay Paitan, Quezon, Bukidnon at around 5:30 a.m. yesterday.

Austria said a tipster informed the CIDG-Bukidnon office that Daulong had been hiding in Barangay Paitan since December 2013. Daulong did not resist arrest.

According to a report reaching the CIDG-Region 10 office, a former barangay councilman, Aniceto Lopez, was taken into custody for allegedly harboring Daulong.

Austria said Daulong was arrested based on a warrant issued by Judge Emmanuel Pasal of Regional Trial Court Branch 38.

Daulong was earlier arrested for a frustrated murder case and detained at the Valencia City jail. But along with 20 others, he escaped last September, two months before the Dignos killing.

A few days after Dignos was gunned down last Nov. 30, witnesses pinpointed Daulong as the one who finished off the broadcaster.

Witnesses identified Daulong through the police rogues’ gallery. Last December, the CIDG-Region 10 filed murder charges against him and prosecutors secured a warrant for his arrest.

As of press time, Daulong was still locked up at the CIDG-Region 10 detention cell while waiting to be transferred to the Valencia City jail. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe