Marañon orders investigation on cop killing

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. yesterday ordered police provincial director Sr. Supt. Milko Lirazan to conduct a “deeper investigation” into the killing of an Iloilo City-based policeman, who was gunned down in Hinigaran town of this province Sunday afternoon.

Marañon quoted Lirazan as saying that an organized crime group may be behind the killing of SPO2 Rex de los Reyes, 43, at a beach resort in Brgy. Miranda of Hinigaran. 

A native of Iloilo City, de los Reyes was killed on the spot due to multiple gunshot injuries pumped from a .45-caliber pistol by two gunmen who were with four others who served as look-outs.

De los Reyes, who was on AWOL after his transfer to the ARMM in January last year, succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds. Eight empty shells of a .45-caliber pistol, PNP, AFPSLAI and firearms license identification cards, and the Honda Civic vehicle of the victim, were recovered from the crime scene.

The governor said five of the six suspects were arrested after a brief chase by policemen in Hacienda Espinos, Brgy. Camandag, La Castellana town, adjacent to Hinigaran.

Lirazan said the arrest of the five suspects yielded a cache of high-powered firearms and explosives, including a hand grenade.

Marañon said the sixth suspect, who was able to escape, could be the key player in the crime, based on a source that said he was the son of a politician from Negros Occidental.

Murder charges have been filed against the five arrested suspects before the Negros Occidental Provincial Prosecutor’s Office last Jan. 7.

Chief Insp. Lino Dalisay, Hinigaran Police chief, who led the filing of murder charges, identified the suspects as Michael Jancilan, 37, and Roger Garilba Someros, 36, of Iloilo; Vicente Poleros, 36, and Eduardo Montano,43, of Escalante City, Negros Occidental, and Openiano Dolar of Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.

Dalisay said additional charges for illegal possession of firearms and explosives will also be filed against them.

De los Reyes first hugged the limelight after he opposed an order from the PNP higher headquarters assigning him to Mindanao. After which, he filed a case against then Rep. Raul Gonzalez, Sr. He was dropped from the PNP rolls and, months later, arrested for illegal possession of firearms and explosives following a robbery of delivery vans in Aklan in 2009.

De los Reyes managed to get reinstated, but again he was implicated in the bombing of the Bali Hotel, then owned by businessman and mayoralty candidate Rommel Ynion in 2013.

The remains of De los Reyes have been brought to Iloilo City yesterday, while the five suspects are now detained at the Hinigaran Police station. —(FREEMAN)