BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran believes recent brutal crimes in this city were handiworks of vigilantes.
Familiaran made the comments over the weekend following the recovery of two severed hands placed on a plastic container with ingredients for a stew, or linâgâ, as well as the recent killing of a fish vendor who previously served time for illegal drugs.
The vice mayor, in a radio interview, said the recent crimes were not ordinary and a big challenge to Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) director, Police Colonel Thomas Joseph Martir, to solve.
Dead fish vendor Henry Paul Bombate, 22, was found hogtied and blindfolded in an empty lot in Barangay Mansilingan on Friday, Jan. 27, two days after severed human hands were found in Barangay 2 on Jan. 25.
Bombate, who sustained four gunshot wounds to his head and three to his chest, was arrested in 2019 for a drug-related charge and was freed just six months ago, police said.
Meanwhile, one of the individuals listed in the “severed hands” paper identified as a certain “RR”was not involved in illegal drug activities, police said.
Police Station 2 commander, Police Captain Jonito Pastrana, said RR was previously assigned in their station as an anti-illegal drugs operative.
He has since left the station and is now undergoing further schooling, and is refusing to be assigned again in any anti-illegal drugs unit.
Pastrana also revealed that he had already talked to 12 of the 22 individuals on the list, and all of them were noted to be “emotional” and have admitted to have been involved in illegal drug activities./PN
