Police task force to probe banker's killing

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – Police have formed a task force to investigate last Friday’s killing of a private bank manager amid speculations that the incident could be related to his being connected with the media. 

Senior Superintendent Jimmy Rivera, Isabela police director, yesterday said the task force would dig deeper into the gunslaying of Johnson Pascual, 52, manager of the First Isabela Cooperative Bank (FICO) branch in Maddela, Quirino. 

Pascual was gunned down by two motorcycle-riding men while driving his Crosswind SUV along the national highway at Alicia town’s Rizaluna village. He was on his way to a meeting at the FICO Bank corporate headquarters in Cauayan City. 

Pascual was shot in the head with a caliber .45 pistol, killing him instantly and causing his vehicle to swerve and fall into a ditch. 

“This is a complex case. Our men are still making investigations into this matter and we still don’t have any lead on the motives or identities of the (killers). The victim was from (Isabela’s) San Agustin town, he worked in Quirino and he was killed in Alicia, so we have to take into consideration all these matters,” Rivera said.

Rivera said though they are more inclined to suspect that the killing may have been related to his present work as a bank manager and not to his being connected with the media. 

“The victim was not a journalist. He was just a writer of a cooperative newspaper, which was owned by the bank he worked for. Besides, the paper closed down about a year ago,” he said. – Charlie Lagasca, Raymund Catindig