Mindanaotoday.com | Gun in Jumalon’s killing was used in an ambush
By: URIEL QUILINGUING
The gun that was used in the gruesome murder of a radio broadcaster in Calamba, Misamis Occidental that was accidentally livestreamed on November 5 this year was the same weapon in the failed assassination attempt on the municipal engineer’s life last month.
Undersecretary Paul M. Gutierrez, executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) disclosed this on Sunday, November 19, in a press statement.
He commended Colonel Dwight Monato, director of the Philippine National Police Misamis Occidental, for this vital information in the ongoing probe on the killing of Juan “DJ Johnny Walker” Jumalon of 94.7 Gold FM Calamba.
Monato also heads the Special Investigation Task Group DJ Johnny Walker that was formed immediately after Jumalon’s killing. No less than President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. gave the marching orders to the PNP and the SITG to solve the crime in dispatch.
Gutierrez, based on Monato’s report, said ballistic examination the police conducted on the recovered casings from the crime scene on Jumalon’s killing has established the link between the Calamba incident and the failed killing of Jopson Baones, municipal engineer, on October 23, also this year. In both incidents, the casings were traced to the same .45 caliber pistol.
On Tuesday, November 14, in a joint police and drug-agency anti-drug operation, recovered the .45 caliber pistol with three live ammunitions from a construction worker from Barangay Mauswagon. These matched the casings that were recovered from two shooting incidents.
The suspect was one of the three whose faces were captured in a closed-circuit TV at the Jumalon’s residence early morning of November 5.
The construction worker, who also yielded three sachets of shabu during the anti-drug operation, was earlier charged before the local court as one of the suspects behind the ambush attempt on the municipal engineer.
“The result of the ballistics is a welcome development in our quest for justice for Jumalon,” Gutierrez said. “This has narrowed down the leads that our investigators are pursuing while increasing the potential of unmasking all of the suspects and the mastermind, if any.”
A total of P3.7 million has been pledged as reward for the arrest of the suspects in the killing of Jumalon, radio owner and anchor of Calamba community radio, 94.7 Gold FM. He was shot twice in the head during his live broadcast last November 5 at his studio located inside his family compound.
SITG’s initial investigation disclosed that three men suspected to be members of a gun-for-hire group active in the province, carried out Jumalon’s killing. One has already been identified by witnesses and charged with murder and theft before the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office. (30)
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