Log shipment ‘tipster’ slain

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — A forester, believed to have tipped off the Navy about a multimillion-peso shipment of logs in Maguindanao last Wednesday, was gunned down by fatigue-wearing men along the national highway here yesterday morning, police said.

The victim, Radzney Rogong, of the community environment and natural resources office here, was shot twice in the chest.

His motorcycle-riding attackers figured in a brief firefight with Superintendent Froilan Quidilla and his driver, PO1 Richard Mialan, who responded to the incident.

Mialan, however, was hit, cutting short the chase as Quidilla had to rush him to the hospital.

According to a source, Rogong had received death threats from unknown groups prior to his gunslaying.

The source said they believe that the seizure of a P50-million log shipment in Upi, Maguindanao by Navy personnel last Wednesday had something to do with Rogong’s killing.

The seized logs are now impounded at the Makar port here while the authenticity of the documents covering the shipment is being verified.

The same source said Rogong, who knew about the apprehension, was the one who could have leaked out the news to the media.

"He was the one who insisted that the logs be held because (the shipment) involved millions of pesos," the source added.