Cebuano gives NBI photo of man resembling triggerman in ambush

CEBU CITY — A man has given the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) a picture of a man whom he believes looks similar to the cartographic sketch of the triggerman in the recent ambush of the Customs deputy collector for operations in Cebu and a Customs examiner.

Acting NBI regional director Reynaldo Esmeralda said the man, whom he met the other day, gave him a picture of a man with features similar to the triggerman’s.

Esmeralda said the man called him on his cellular phone and offered to give him the picture after seeing the cartographic sketches of the two ambush suspects in newspapers.

The picture, the man said, was taken two years ago. He added that he even had the name and address of the man in the picture.

Esmeralda said he would show the picture to the two witnesses who helped the NBI make the cartographic sketches.

He said it would definitely speed up the case if the two witnesses can positively identify the man in the picture as the one they saw at the ambush scene.

The NBI earlier said it was having a hard time persuading witnesses to come forward. The bureau has offered a P100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the motorcycle-riding killers of Customs deputy collector for operations Eduardo Lao and examiner Bennet Soreño.

The NBI’s two witnesses have described the killers as at least five feet and four inches tall and dark-complexioned.

The one driving the motorcycle was reportedly of medium build, about 30 years old and was wearing a gray shirt and blue jeans. On the other hand, the back-rider, who fired the gun, was reportedly about 25 to 35 years old, muscular and had short straight black hair. He was also wearing a shirt and jeans.

The NBI earlier said the killers could have been skilled gunmen because of the precision with which they executed the ambush.

Lao and Sereno were on board Lao’s Isuzu Trooper on their way to Lao’s residence when two men on a Yamaha motorbike waylaid them when they stopped for a red light at the corner of Osmeña Boulevard and R. Landon street.

The NBI’s autopsy showed that Lao sustained at least seven gunshot wounds, mostly in the right side of the body. The fatal wounds were near his right ear that caused intracranial hemorrhage, and in his chest where a bullet pierced through his thoracic cavity and lacerated his right lung.

Meanwhile, Sereno was hit in the right posterior chest where the bullet entered his thoracic cavity and lacerated his right lung and the left atrium and left ventricle of his heart, which caused his immediate death. — Freeman News Service