Cops hot on the trail of Orda’s killers

The Parañaque police is now hot on the trail of the suspected killers of Francis Orda, son of a Manila prosecutor, who was gunned down on board his car in a Parañaque City subdivision Monday night.

Sources told The STAR that a witness, a resident of Better Living Subdivision in Barangay Don Bosco, was able to take down the plate number of the get-away vehicle used by the killers of Orda, son of Domingo Orda Jr., of the Manila Prosecutor’s Office.

The source said they have already checked the registration of the car with the Land Transportation Office (LTO) which they said enabled them to gather more information helpful to their investigation.

However, the source refused to give more details, saying it might jeopardize follow-up operations. The young Orda, 20, college student, and resident of 34 Vietnam St., in the said village, was driving his ash-gray Mitsubishi Lancer near the corner of Saudi Arabia and Sierra Leone streets, at around 6:20 p.m. when three heavily armed men opened fire at his car.

It was learned that the victim had just driven his father’s policeman-bodyguard to a nearby police community precinct and was driving back home when the ambush took place. A police bodyguard was assigned to the elder Orda after the fiscal reported to the Philippine National Police numerous death threats his household had been receiving in the last few days.

The prosecutor, police said, suspected a barangay official in Manila administering a parking lot, as the one behind the death threats, and consequently, his son’s killing.

Meanwhile, Executive Secretary Renato de Villa promised yesterday to provide additional security and protection to the family of Orda who supported his 1998 presidential campaign.

The Executive Secretary gave his personal assurances over radio station dzRH yesterday when the mother of the young Orda informed him that they have sought the assistance of Mario de Villa, the brother of Secretary De Villa.

The bereaved Mrs. Orda, who was crying on air, told De Villa they were together during the 1998 campaign when he ran but lost in the presidential race. "I’m ready to help because my brother himself is working on this case to help. I will send an investigator and security," De Villa told Mrs. Orda. – Rainier Allan Ronda and Marichu Villanueva