2 guards in Arada slay could have been hired?

CEBU, Philippines – Members of the Task Force Arada are now set on tracking down an “influential person” who could have allegedly hired the two security guards on-duty in the shooting to death of a Philippine Economic Zone Authority official and her husband in Naga town last Saturday evening.

Sr. Supt. Melvin Buenafe, who leads the task force, said that after initially placing the two security guards as suspects based on the statement of the dying PEZA official, Mary Jane Arada, they are to go after the mastermind believed to have been acquainted with the couple.

However, since the guards tested negative in the paraffin test conducted by the crime laboratory, Buenafe consulted the lab’s head, Supt. Nestor Sator on the findings. The latter pointed out that “even if the two guards tested negative for gun powder, such is not conclusive evidence” as the suspects could have used gloves while carrying out the crime. Another factor is the direction of the wind or that there was another gunman.

Besides, the police are sticking to the testimony of the wounded Mary Jane who managed to name one of the guards as suspect before she drew her last breath.

After filing murder charges against Rachel Omawan, 31, and Rudynas Danding, 34, of the Jantro Security Agency, the task force is set to continue gathering more pieces of evidence that would support the case like checking the background of the victims while they were working in Manila or prior to their transfer here in Cebu, or the cases handled by Mary Jane, and if the death threats she reportedly received earlier are related to the cases filed at the Ombudsman.

Immediately after learning of the incident, Police Regional Office-7 director Lani-O Nerez ordered for the creation of Task Force Arada comprised of the Regional Intelligence Division, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Regional Investigation and Detection Management Division, Regional Security Agency Guards and Supervisory Unit-7, Crime Laboratory-7, and the Cebu Provincial Police Office.

Lawyer Mary Jane Arada, 59, an officer-in-charge administrator of the PEZA and her 60-year-old husband, Francisco, a retired colonel, were shot allegedly by three motorcycle-riding men while the couple was having dinner at the compound of the Cebu New Township One Economic Zone in barangay Cantao-an, Naga.

Mary Jane sustained three gunshot wounds to the stomach and one in each leg and died an hour after reaching the Cebu South General Hospital while Francisco suffered a single fatal shot to the back of his head.

During their arrest, Omawan and Danding argued that if they are indeed the ones responsible for the crime, they could have fled already. They claimed they even helped the police officers in gathering pieces of evidence.

As for CPPO director Jesus Gaquing, he finds it impossible for the guards to be clueless as to how the assailants could have looked like. He said common sense will tell that because one has to pass the guardhouse first as there is only one road leading to the site, “imposible kaayo nga dili makakita ang mga gwardya nga wala may laing agianan ‘nya elevated pa gyod ang ilang guardhouse. Moagi gyod unta sa ilang atubangan, syaro’g wala gyod sila kabantay,” he said. – Gabriel C. Bonjoc/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)