BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) formed the Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) Pondevilla to dig deeper into the assassination of Northern Negros Electric Cooperative (NONECO) general manager, Atty. Danny Pondevilla.
BCPO director, Police Colonel Thomas Joseph Martir, said the SITG investigators are from Police Station 2, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO), Negros Occidental Crime Laboratory, and the Anti-Cybercrime Division of the Philippine National Police.
According to Martir, several text messages were apparently erased from Pondevilla’s mobile phone.
The mobile phone had since been forwarded to the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Division to recover the deleted text messages.
Police Station 2 commander, Police Lieutenant Jonito Pastrana, meanwhile, said based on their own investigation, the gunman was inside the vehicle when Pondevilla was shot.
Probers pointed out the lack of bullet holes in the victim’s Honda CRV, as well as the spent .45 caliber shell recovered inside the car.
Martir also said the results of the paraffin tests on two persons of interest were negative for gunpowder residue.
The police is hoping that witnesses would surface to help them in the investigation.
Pondevilla was gunned down along 16th Lacson Street in Bacolod City past 12 a.m. on Dec. 21.
Pondevilla, fondly addressed as “GM Dan”, finished his undergraduate studies on AB Political Science at 21, and passed the Bar and became a lawyer at 25.
He formerly served as office-in-charge of Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco)./PN
