Arrest of Bacolod cop killers ordered

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines - Philippine National Police Chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome recently ordered the Police Regional Office-6 and the Bacolod City Police Office to arrest the suspects who killed a policeman in this city last Thursday.

Bartolome, who was in Bacolod over the weekend, went to the wake of slain PO3 Rolando Malate at the Rolling Hills Memorial Chapels in this city and gave his family financial support.

Malate, 43, a member of the BCPO City Anti-Illegal Drugs-Special Operations Task Group (CAID-SOTG), had just brought his two children to the Bacolod Tay Tung High School when the incident happened shortly after.

With his 10-year-old daughter, he was on his way to a coffee shop, at the junction of Hernaez and Jovita streets near the school, where one of two men riding in tandem on a motorcycle shot him at close range while he was about to alight from his car.

He sustained four gunshot wounds on his chest, two on his neck and one on his right ear and died while being treated at the Bacolod Adventist Hospital, police records show.

"I want the results (of the investigation) finished, and I assured the family (of Malate) that I am going to follow up this case and make sure that this is resolved," Bartolome said.

"I also instructed them to get as much information they need and be careful while conducting the investigation as they may miss important details," he said.

PRO-6 director Chief Supt. Cepriano Querol assured Bartolome that the investigation on the killing of Malate, who he said was instrumental in the arrest of several drug personalities in the city, will be finished soon and the perpetrators identified.

BCPO director Sr. Supt. Ricardo De La Paz, for his part, has organized "Task Force Malate" to speed up the investigation and to solve the case.

De La Paz is heading the task force himself, together with members of the Bacolod Criminal Investigation and Detection Group led by Supt. Victor Ongkiko; BCPO Special Operations Group; Intelligence Branch; Investigation and Detection Management Branch; Regional Intelligence Unit; CAID-SOTG and Police Station 6.

Dela Paz, in a case conference of the task force, said on Sunday that a drug group, which earlier offered a bribe to the BCPO CAID-SOTG but failed, has been eyed in the killing of Malate.

He said the group had allegedly offered a huge amount of money to CAID-SOTG members in exchange for not being busted by authorities.

An emissary of the drug group told the CAID-SOTG members that by their refusal of the bribe, the money will be used instead to pay hired gunmen to kill the policemen.

Besides Malate, other members of the CAID-SOTG have been receiving death threats also, said its team leader, Sr. Insp. Joemarie Occeño. - THE FREEMAN