Probers focusing on 3 angles in Hisuler slay

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga -- Police investigators are eyeing three possible angles in the murder of former Lanao del Norte congressman Mario Hisuler last Monday.

An investigator, who requested anonymity, said they are "carefully evaluating" whether or not the killing was accidental, intentional, or that the killers were guns-for-hire.

Police consider as suspects all people who were with Hisuler when he was shot, including his police bodyguards, according to a source from Task Force Hisuler.

Task Force Hisuler was created by Central Luzon police director Chief Superintendent Roberto Calinisan to speed up the investigation into Hisuler's murder.

The source said the firearms of all people accompanying Hisuler will be subjected to ballistic examination, while the gunholders, including Hisuler's police bodyguards, will undergo paraffin tests.

Hisuler, president of the PNOC Coal Corp., was gunned down while visiting the grave of his best friend, Macario Valerio, former government corporate counsel, at a cemetery in Jaen, Nueva Ecija last May 1.

Those accompanying Hisuler were Valerio's widow, Mila, Deputy Immigration Commissioner Fortu Pugoon, lawyers Crisolito Dionido and Rodolfo Waga, and three police bodyguards.

Valerio was shot dead by still unidentified men in front of his house in Quezon City in the early morning of March 18.

Calinisan ordered Task Force Hisuler yesterday to speed up their investigation so his killers can be arrested and placed behind bars.

He assigned the 3rd Criminal Investigation and Detection Group as lead investigation agency in the probe.

The killers are believed to have been after Hisuler only because his companions were not hurt.

Valerio and Hisuler were senior partners in the Hisuler, De Guzman, Dionido and Ocaya law offices in Makati.