Police have arrested two suspects in the broad daylight fatal shooting of Dumaguete radio broadcaster Dindo Generoso, while the alleged triggerman, an active member of the Philippine National Police (PNP) remains at large.
Negros Oriental provincial police director Police Col. Entoma at a press conference Friday morning identified the arrested suspects as Police Corporal Glenn Corsame (optionally retired personnel of the Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office or NOPPO), and a resident of San Jose Village, Barangay Banilad and Teddy Reyes Salaw, 44, married, and a resident of Batinguel all in Dumaguete City.
They were arrested about ten hours or so after the crime was perpetrated, mainly because of video footages from the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) system of the city government that were pieced together, Entoma said.
A 3rd suspect, whom Col. Entoma identified as Private First Class Roger Rubio, an active police personnel assigned to the 2nd Mobile Force Company in Negros Oriental and is based in Guihulngan City, managed to slip through the police’s dragnet and is said to be the alleged triggerman.
“Hindi na namin siya naabutan sa kanilang residence sa Guihulngan (we did not find him at his residence in Guihulngan),” said Entoma, who confirmed that according to the wife, the policeman had left very early that day and has not since returned.
Col. Entoma said Corsame and Salaw were arrested early evening hours after Generoso, 67, was shot several times in Barangay Piapi here at around 7:30 a.m. Thursday while on his way to DYEM-FM Bai Radio 96.7 for his regular early morning program.
The police recovered from Salaw a Caliber .45 Norinco pistol with eight rounds of live ammunition.
Both Corsame and Salaw are now under the custody of the Dumaguete City Police Station as charges are being readied against them.
Murder charges will be filed against Corsame, Salaw, and Rubio, while a separate charge for illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition will also be lodged against Salaw, Col. Entoma said.
Salaw was subjected to paraffin test even though he was the alleged driver of the motorcycle that Rubio rode when the crime was perpetrated.
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Piecing together the CCTV video footages obtained from the city, Col. Entoma said that their investigation started from the time that a Mistubishi Strada silver colored pickup truck was parked alongside the boulevard early that morning, and was driven by Salaw, as subsequent investigation had showed.
When Generoso’s car, a Hyundai Elantra, passed them, the alleged triggerman, Rubio, disembarked from the pickup truck, and walked over to the motorcycle nearby and jumped on board with Corsame driving it.
The two then followed Generoso, Entoma said.
The police have recovered the pickup truck, which, following a trace, was discovered to be owned by a certain Tomasito Alegdo, reportedly the brother-in-law of Salaw.
Alegdo will also be invited for questioning soon, Entoma said.
Meanwhile, police investigators have not yet established a motive behind the killing of blocktimer Generoso.
According to the provincial police director, they are looking at the at-large policeman, Roger Rubio, as possibly having a personal grudge against Generoso.
But they are not discounting the possibility that there could be a “mastermind” behind the attack on Generoso, in the event they cannot establish a link between the broadcaster and the alleged triggerman, he said.
Entoma promised that they will continue to dig deeper into the case, even though at their level, it is already “considered solved” with the arrest of two suspects.
He is calling on potential witnesses to cooperate with the police investigation and is also hoping that the wife will allow them to take possession of Generoso’s mobile phone so that it can searched for text messages or calls that would provide additional information to the police.
Col. Entoma has also issued an appeal to the alleged triggerman, Roger Rubio, to voluntarily surrender to his immediate superior.
Rubio might now be considered AWOL (Absent Without Leave) but the police will still have to verify the date that he had last reported to his unit, Entoma added. (PNA)
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