The Philippine National Police (PNP) authorities in Eastern Visayas mobilized a task group to coordinate all the actions of regional investigative units related to the shooting of journalist Jesus Malabanan in Calbayog City.
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“The PNP is doing its best to immediately identify and arrest the person responsible for Malabanan’s death. I instructed the Regional Director of Police Regional Office 8 (PRO8) to create a Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) to expedite the resolution of this case,” PNP Chief Police Gen. Dionardo Carlos said.
Carlos said the SITG will be composed of investigating teams from the Regional Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Forensic Group, Regional Intelligence Unit, and Calbayog City Police Station under the supervision of the Deputy Regional Director for Operations of PRO-8.
Based on initial incident reports, Calbayog City Police Station received a random call about a shooting alarm on the eve of Dec. 8. Initial investigation revealed that the victim was watching television inside his store when a gunman suddenly attacked and shot him.
Because it was nighttime, the witnesses could hardly identify the gunman but they saw him fleeing the crime scene using a motorcycle together with a rider companion.
Checkpoint operations at possible exit points were immediately conducted to intercept the suspects.
The SITG is now obtaining copies of CCTV footage that may help in the ongoing probe.
“We understand the call of the family and different groups to expedite the investigation of the case. These requests will not fall on deaf ears. Establishing the motive of the case can help us in going to the bottom of this. We just need the cooperation of the witnesses,” Carlos said.
The SITG will coordinate with the family of the victim amid reports that the victim has been receiving threats recently because of his profession, or if there are other personal angles that are worth looking into, the PNP chief said. (PNP-PIO) – jlo
