Coop manager found dead in Balamban

A manager of a cooperative was found dead with five stab wounds in his body at the Trans Central Highway in barangay Bayong, Balamban Friday night.

The victim, Antonio Bitoon Adulfo, 50, was the manager of the United Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative based at sitio Cantimpla in barangay Taptap of Cebu City.

Town policemen, PO2s Jose Villarino, Eugene Macapaz, and Julius Obañana, received a report about the dead body and went to the scene where they found Adulfo lying dead on top of his Honda XLR motorcycle.

It could not be determined yet why Adulfo was killed but the responding policemen said that either he was waylaid or he was attacked by a backrider.

Investigators also noticed that the victim was already on the descending portion of the highway apparently heading to the town's poblacion. They also found a pair of rubber slippers several meters away from the body.

Dr. Roderick Asagra, the medico-legal officer, concluded in the medical examinations that Adulfo died on the spot due to stab wounds in his back and abdomen.

PO3 Celso Diaz yesterday said the town police chief of police already sent policemen to do follow-up investigation for the identification of the assailant and the motive of the killing.

Meanwhile in Samboan town that same Friday night, a 54-year-old man was stabbed by a carpenter in barangay Dalahikan, and died on his way to a hospital in Cebu City.

Leonardo Pano-on was stabbed in the back part of his left knee with a knife locally known as "plamingko." His assailant was identified as Fortunato Belonguel, 58, also a resident of Dalahikan, Samboan.

The victim was taken first to the Don Mariano Jesus Cuenco Memorial Hospital in Malabuyoc but doctors there advised for his immediate transfer to a hospital in Cebu City. He however died along the way due to loss of blood.

Belonguel later surrendered to responding policemen who in turn detained him at the town's police station pending the filing of charges against him in court.

Town police desk officer, SPO1 Esmeraldo Dela Peña, said an old grudge was the motive of the stabbing. The victim and the suspected assailant met in a house during a fiesta celebration that day. - Norvie S. Misa