TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — A suspect in the killing of radio blocktimer Maurito “Mau” Ramirez Lim was arrested last Friday and identified as “hired gun” Jovanni Celocia Orenia, but the police were still unable to determine who could be the brain behind the murder.
Bohol Provincial Police director, Senior Superintendent Dennis Agustin, yesterday held a press conference to announce the arrest of Orenia, which may showed that the killing of the broadcaster was “solved,” and to drum up campaign against illegal drugs and other crimes.
Police officials said Orenia, a native of Barangay San Carlos in Danao town of Bohol, was the suspect in the murder of Mau, allegedly in exchange for P80,000 to do the job. Orenia was caught in a drug buy-bust operation conducted by the BPPO Intelligence Branch operatives.
Confiscated from Orenia upon his arrest were a .45-caliber pistol with 11 live bullets, 11 packs containing “shabu” granules and a mobile phone. He is now detained at the City Jail.
Ballistic examinations revealed that the pistol seized from Orenia “matched perfectly” with the empty shell of the bullet used in killing Mau.
The Firearms Identification Report No. FAIS-42-2015, dated last March 10 and signed by forensic examiners Superintendent Sayson Acog and Senior Police Officer 2 Florentino Diola, confirmed that cartridge recovered from the crime scene “was fired from a .45-caliber Colt pistol (with serial number 30100003823),” the same gun taken from Orenia.
In the anti-illegal drug operations, the police have been monitoring Orenia’s movements for the past several days, after he was found to have been peddling shabu in Mansasa Village, Lindaville and the airport, in this city.
The police later put Orenia on the drug watchlist, resulting in his arrest that in turn caused the discovery of his alleged linked to the killing of Mau.
Orenia, a former member of CAFGU, was earlier convicted of illegal possession of firearm and sentenced to four years and six months in prison. He eventually availed himself of probation causing his release from detention. Later he worked as a helper at the house of the late City Councilor Alexander “Aleckoy” Lim.
Mau was shot to death before he got off from his car to anchor his radio program, “Chairman Mau On Board” over DyRD radio on Valentine’s Day.
As this developed, Senior Inspector Jacinto Mandal of the investigation team confirmed to the media that media-related work has been ruled out as a motive in Mau’s murder.
Mandal said that, based on text messages recovered from Mau’s mobile phone, the killing could have been due to “land dispute,” although he could not confirm this yet. (FREEMAN)