Warrant out for alleged mastermind in killing of Kidapawan City broadcaster
KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines — Authorities have been ordered to arrest a man allegedly behind the fatal ambush on a Kidapawan City radio commentator last July.
Dante Encarnacion Tabusares, alias Bong Encarnacion, is now subject of an arrest warrant issued by Kidapawan City RTC Branch 61 Judge Henelinda Molina-Diaz on January 15. Copies of the order were only made public on Saturday.
Tabusares allegedly masterminded the July 10, 2019 ambush on Brigada FM commentator Eduardo Dizon, who was critical of the KAPA Community Ministry International in his commentaries.
Tabusares was one of three suspects earlier charged in the murder of Dizon. He appealed for a review of the case filed against him, causing the suspension of the issuance of a warrant for his arrest.
The court then ordered the arrest only of his two alleged cohorts, Junell Jane Andagkit Poten and Sotelo Jacolbe, Jr.
It was officials of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security that led the relatives of Dizon in filing criminal cases against Tabusares, Poten and Jacolbe after PTFoMS and probers from Police Regional Office-12 investigated the incident.
Tabusares, then a blocktimer endorser of KAPA and coordinator for its money market operation in Kidapawan City, threatened to have Dizon killed on his radio program weeks before the incident.
Relatives and members of the media community in central Mindanao said Dizon may have been killed for his commentaries on the KAPA scheme that President Rodrigo Duterte ordered shut down in June 2019.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Bureau of Investigation have filed complaints against KAPA's officials over the investment scheme.
The NBI pointed out that an ordinary business would not be able to pay investors a monthly 30-percent return on investment and survive.
Witnesses have tagged Tabusares as having planned the ambush on Dizon. The plan was allegedly hatched in a meeting several days before the victim was killed by gunmen while on his way home from his nighttime radio program.
Sources from PRO-12 said Sunday that personnel of the Kidapawan City police and the North Cotabato provincial police office are now trying to locate Tabusares to serve him the warrant for his arrest.
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