Kap Remia’s killing may end up a cold case

ILOILO City – The killing of barangay captain and drug suspect Remia Prevendido Gregori of Bakhaw, Mandurriao district may end up a cold case just like slain drug lord Melvin Odicta Sr.’s.

The Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) still has no suspect, according to Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, police provincial director.

Gregori, sister of another slain drug lord Richard Prevendido, was shot to death by armed men at her beach resort in Barangay Igcadlum, San Joaquin, Iloilo on June 24. Also killed was her helper Analee Antipatia.

No witnesses have come forward, said Tayaba.

Odicta, a resident of Barangay Tanza Esperanza, City Proper, was shot to death by armed men on Aug. 29, 2016 at the jetty port of Barangay Caticlan in Malay, Aklan.

Nearly two years since the killing, Malay police investigators are yet to identify any suspect.

“We continue to look for witnesses who can lead us to the identities of the suspects,” said Tayaba.

The seven men who targeted Gregori concealed their faces by wearing bonnets.

The shooting happened four days after President Rodrigo Duterte’s visit to Iloilo on June 20.

IPPO’s chief of operation, Chief Inspector Rene Alavaren, was tasked to help the San Joaquin police investigate the killing.

In Odicta’s case, the assassins also killed the drug lord’s wife Meriam. The couple was walking at the walkway of the Caticlan Jetty Port terminal when shot. They had just alighted from a roll-on roll-off (ro-ro) vessel from Batangas. The killers disappeared quickly as people were scampering away after hearing bursts of gunfire.

The shooting happened three weeks after President Duterte branded Iloilo as the “most shabulized” in the county.

Aside from drug trafficking rivalry, Tayaba said, probers were also exploring other angles in Gregori’s killing. Information reached the IPPO had Antipatia lots of properties for a maid.

“Baka may kinalalaman ang ari-arian ni Antipatia pero nagko-conduct pa tayo ng investigation kung totoong may mga properties siya,” said Tayaba.

Gregori, a high-value drug target of the Mandurriao police station, was shot five times. Autopsy conducted by Dr. Owen Lebaquin of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) showed that one of the bullets used was a hollow-point bullet designed to inflict maximum tissue damage and blood loss or shock.

Sept. 18 last year, Gregori surrendered to the Mandurriao police station. But she denied any links to illegal drugs.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Region 6 suspected Gregori to have sheltered her wanted brother who was eventually killed by policemen in a shootout in Barangay Balabago, Jarod strict on Sept. 1, 2017.

The Odictas, on the other hand, were gunned down four days after meeting then Interior and Local Government secretary Ismael Sueno in Camp Crame in Quezon City to deny their involvement in illegal drugs.

Odicta sustained six gunshot wounds on the head, upper right shoulder, butt, thigh and a leg while his wife had gunshot wounds in the abdomen and back./PN