DRUG-RELATED MURDER

PANGASINAN Police Provincial Office (PPPO) already identified initially two suspects in the killing of the intelligence officer and wounding of another police officer of the San Carlos City Police Station.

P/Chief Inspector Norman Florentino, PPPO information officer, said murder and frustrated murder cases were filed against Danilo Fernandez and Gerry Castro, owner of the two Grandia Vans that served as getaway vehicles of the suspects who killed PO2 Jimbo Agtarap and wounded PO1 Rachael Cancino.

San Carlos City PNP filed the case before the City Prosecutor’s Office in San Carlos.

P/Sr. Superintendent Ronald Lee said the identify of the suspects were established by the special investigation task group formed to track down the armed men.

“We filed a case against the owner because we believe he was involved and he appears to be covering up and protecting the suspects,”  Lee said.

Castro was in a car rental business but whose operations were illegal, the investigating team  noted.

“He’s the owner, how can he claim that he didn’t know the suspects who used his vehicles, does he rent out vehicles to people who use mere aliases with no identification cards. He’s hiding something,” he added.

Lee ordered the creation of a special investigation task group from the PNP Provincial Office hours after the incident.

Lee confirmed that the motive of the crime was work-related.

P/Supt. Nestor Cusi, city police chief, said Agtarap, a member of the drug enforcement team of the police station was shot by the armed men who were riding a van with plate number VN 9305, while he was riding his motorcycle on his way home to Barangay Payar from a night duty.

His colleague, PO1 Rachael Cancino, who happened to pass by on board another motorcycle, was shot in the foot when he chased the suspects.

Both policemen were rushed to the Virgen Milagrosa University Foundation Hospital in the city where Agtarap was declared dead on arrival.

In the dragnet operation, the van was intercepted in the interior road of Barangay Dalanguiring Urbiztondo where an armed encounter ensued between Urbiztondo Police and the suspects.

P/Chief Inspector Joshua Maximo, Urbiztondo police chief, said the three suspects abandoned the van and ran to an adjacent cornfield during the shootout.

Found inside abandoned van were a 9mm and cal. 45 pistols, empty shells and the vehicle’s registration that identified Gerry Castro of Mapandan as the owner.

The following day, an abandoned Hi Ace Van with plate number AWW 8718, also owned by Castro, was found by Aguilar Police Station along the Pangasinan-Tarlac Highway in Barangay Bocacliw Aguilar.

Lee said the slaying of Agtarap was well planned following the discovery by the police of the abandoned second get-away car that may have provided back up to the gunmen in the first car (Nora Dominguez/Tita Roces/Ding Micua)

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