Surigao City police chief killed

BANGONAY, Jabonga, Agusan del Norte — Unknown gunmen killed the police chief of Surigao City at a junction here early yesterday morning while he was on his way to work.

Authorities said Superintendent Andres Santos, 55, had just boarded his car at about 5:45 a.m. when an unidentified man flagged him down. He opened the window to greet the man, but three gunmen came out of nowhere and peppered his car with 9 mm. and Armalite bullets.

Lawmen found 41 Armalite and 10 9 mm. slugs at the crime scene. Santos sustained at least 19 gunshot wounds all over the body, autopsy by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) showed.

Santos lived in the town of Cabadbaran, about 75 kilometers south of Surigao.

Witnesses told The STAR they saw four young-looking men in the waiting shed at the junction at about 5 a.m. They described them as between 17 and 20 years old and wearing shirts and denim pants.

The gunmen took Santos’ caliber .45 pistols and Armalite rifle and a bag containing some P40,000 in funds of the Surigao City police. They fled on foot toward the Bangonay bridge.

Newly installed Caraga police director Alberto Rama Olario suspected the killing was the handiwork of communist rebels. But Surigao City Mayor Alfredo Casurra believed otherwise, saying it was Santos’ no-nonsense drive against illegal drugs that did him in.

Santos had received death threats because of his anti-illegal drug campaign.

Santos is survived by his wife, Dalisay, principal of the Maybunga Elementary School in Pasig City. His family resides in Cainta, Rizal.

Olario has informed Philippine National Police chef Director General Leandro Mendoza that the Jabonga police and elements of the 143rd Regional Mobile Group and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group were pursuing Santos’ killers.

The Caraga region is a hotbed of the New People’s Army (NPA).

Meanwhile, in Bayugan, Agusan del Sur, a police bodyguard of Vice Mayor Lorna Amora has been invited for questioning in connection with the killing of Mayor Lope Asis.

Olario ordered PO1 Alexander Maghanoy, a member of the Agusan del Norte police temporarily assigned to Amora, to report to his office today following information from Asis’ camp that Maghanoy’s caliber .45 pistol was the alleged murder weapon.

The Asis’ camp believe that his political opponents could have hired gunmen from Mt. Cantikol in Santiago, Agusan del Norte, a mining area known to be a haven of criminals and guns-for-hire, to murder Asis.

Amora denied any role in the killing, claiming she is not financially capable of hiring one.

Last Saturday, former La Paz mayor Oscar Torralba, who was seeking a comeback in this year’s elections, was gunned down while campaigning in a hinterland village.

Caraga residents are worried about the spate of violence in the region. Business and religious groups are dissatisfied with the work of the police in safeguarding lives.

There were unconfirmed reports that two mayoral candidates in Surigao del Sur were murdered yesterday. — With Christina Mendez