P50,000 reward up for info on mayor’s killers

TUGUEGARAO CITY — Local authorities have put up a cash reward of P50,000 for information leading to the arrest of the killers of the mayor of one of Cagayan’s northern towns.

Police now have an artist’s sketch, based on the descriptions provided by two eyewitnesses, of the assassin of Allacapan Mayor Nathaniel Oña.

The triggerman was described as five feet, 10 inches tall and wearing a white T-shirt and maong pants.

Oña, 52, was shot in the left chin with a caliber .45 pistol by one of two motorcycle-riding men while he, together with two of his workers, was inside the family-owned gas refilling station just near his residence in the Allacapan town proper last Saturday.

Oña, who was on his second term, was pronounced dead on arrival at the Christian Hospital in neighboring Aparri town.

Inspector Jane Binayug, of the provincial police-community relations office, said police and local government officials have raised P50,000 as cash reward for the solution of the case.

Not discounting other motives like politics or personal grudge, Binayug said probers are inclined to believe that the motive behind Oña’s murder was "business-related." She, however, declined to elaborate.

Oña’s family owns several businesses, including the gas station in Allacapan, about two hours by land from this capital city.

Police doubt if the New People’s Army had any hand in the killing.

Chief Superintendent Jefferson Soriano, Cagayan Valley police director, formed Task Force Oña to go after the mayor’s killers as well as the masterminds.