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Monday, July 28, 2003
Probers yet to tag suspects in Lao ambush
CEBU Deputy Collector Eduardo Lao will be buried today, four days after he was ambushed and killed along with another Bureau of Customs officer last Thursday.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 is appealing for the public to help in their investigation into the ambush, which also left customs appraiser Bennett Soreño and a high school graduating student dead and two others wounded.
A source from the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes said Lao will be buried at the Cebu Memorial Park after the requiem mass at 11 a.m. in the Carmelites’ Monastery along Juan Luna Ave., Cebu City.
Nelson Bartolome, NBI 7 executive officer, said much of their effort right now is still directed at getting witnesses because most of those who earlier showed willingness to help have backed out.
That was after the ambush in Manila on former Cebu district collector Felipe Bartolome (no relation to the NBI official), which he said gave the witnesses second thoughts.
“The assassination attempt somehow had an effect because those who were initially cooperative are now reluctant,” he said.
Former Cebu district collector Felipe Bartolome was wounded and his driver killed also by two men on big bikes last Friday, a day after the attack on Lao here in Cebu. Lao was deputy collector for operations.
Lawyer Rennan Oliva of NBI 7 said at least two persons so far have helped in making cartographic sketches of the two assailants.
But they want to think it over and consult a lawyer whether they will execute an affidavit regarding what they saw.
One of them, Bartolome said, was riding a vehicle that was directly behind Lao’s Isuzu Trooper and had a vantage view of what occurred.
As of last night, NBI 7 was still wooing another potential witness so that they would have three witnesses by today.
Although cartographic sketches of the two men were already available, Bartolome said they will first interview the other witness and make another set of sketches, for comparison.
Bartolome said investigators are also tracing all transactions made by Lao shortly before his death.
“We want to see which ones got someone adversely affected so much he thought of harming Lao,” he said. RHM |
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