Police try to unmask 'insider' in Kua slay

MANILA, Philippines - In a bid to unmask the “insider” in the killing of former Tourism official and STAR reporter Nixon Kua, police have invited for questioning the supervisor of the landscaping of his house and the security chief of the Laguna subdivision where he had bought the house.

Senior Superintendent Gilbert Cruz, Laguna police director, said they wanted to know from landscape supervisor Raymund Moran who among the eight workers he had hired for the job in Kua’s house were the “buddies” of the four suspects – Darwin Saminiano, 20; John Rey Cortez, 22; Noel Garcia, 23; and Michael Molino, 21.

Cruz said retired police colonel Saturnino Lajara, chief of the Hunter Security Agency of the Ayala Greenfield subdivision, would also be asked who among his security guards are acquaintances of the suspects or their fellow residents in a slum area in Barangay Maunong, Calamba City.

Superintendent Bernabe Balba, Region 4-A chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said summonses have been served to Moran and Lajara, who both promised to avail themselves for investigation “as soon as possible.”

Both Cruz and Balba strongly believe that the four suspects had “inside” information when they shot Kua dead and wounded his younger brother, Allyxon, 46, when they robbed Kua of P90,000 in payroll for his landscape workers last July 21.

Once they are able to establish the insider’s identity, Cruz said they would file charges against him as an accomplice of the four suspects in Kua’s killing.

“The penalty may be lighter but the thing is he will spend a large portion of his life in jail,” Cruz said, referring to the insider.

Cruz and Balba had the suspicion that an insider played a key role in the Kua killing because the four suspects hid in the grassy portion at the backyard of Allyxon’s house and waited for hours for the arrival of Kua and his family.

“They were very sure that Kua and his family would be arriving in Allyxon’s house on that particular day. And only a handful of persons knew that,” Cruz said. On that day, Kua was scheduled to hand over the payroll to Moran.

Cruz, head of Task Force Nixon, said Kua bought a house a block away from Allyxon’s residence last month and hired Moran to do the landscaping before his family would move in.