Investigators have found leads to the possible gunman and brains of the 2011 mysterious murder of a Carmen police auxiliary whose death was believed to be drug-related. They also found possible link between an illegal drug “discovery” and the murder of the victim, Rodito Ronquillo, who was a member of the mayor’s task force. Before his murder, Ronquillo witnessed by accident an incident involving illegal drugs, probers learned. The leads are based on the testimonies of the witnesses, including an ex-member of the task force and Ronquillo’s widow herself who finally gained courage and testified under oath. Their testimonies were gathered by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and Philippine National Police (PNP). In her sworn statement, the victim’s wife, Marina Ronquillo, pleaded to the three agencies to help her find justice for her murdered husband and four children he left to her sole care. The initial investigation found leads to the identity of the triggerman and, hopefully, that of the mastermind as well as the involvement of illegal drug trafficking in the killing.

The investigation update was revealed by Provincial Administrator Alfonso Damalerio II in response to a media query during the weekly Kita ug Ang Gobernador live broadcast on Friday. The drug angle could likely tag a drug syndicate---if not a complex web of narco-politics--- once the NBI probe is finalized in due time, hinted Damalerio who is the capitol focal person on peace and order concern. Boholanos have been strongly warned against the use of drug money by some evil candidates in buying votes. This has been amplified by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, PNP, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Commission on Elections (Comelec) which warned against the use of guns, goons and gold, the latter to include fake money. No potential witnesses then dared come into the open on the murder of Ronquillo, who was shot near the Carmen church about early dawn of November 28, 2011, until his widow could no longer bear the injustice.

WIDOW’S TESTIMONY

In her statement under oath, victim’s wife Marina recounted her husband complaining to her before his murder over the violent traits of their mayor, Conchita Delos Reyes. “Grabe ka isog nang mayora ug gani dili managana mosugo ug papatay sa mga tawong dili niya kagustohan,” her husband had told her. The widow said that once, her husband and his fellow police auxiliary and task force members were allegedly ordered by the mayor to get a certain Niño, of minor age, for the boy’s offenses. Carmen sources said the youthful offender was also shot dead and, as in the case of Ronquillo, his death has remained among Delos Reyes town’s unsolved killings. Marina had adviced her husband to leave the mayor’s monitoring team and find another work but his task force head named Bong would want him to stay. Her greatest fear came when her brother-in-law, Ernesto Ronquillo, informed her of the murder of her husband.

She then learned that the mayor’s twin sister, Angelita “Lilit” Toribio-Abundo, reassigned her husband from market post to the highway to monitor the streetlighting at the time of her killing. Accompanied by her brother Cornelio, Marina rushed to the town hall to seek assistance. Once they got here in the morning which was already hours since her husband’s slay, Abundo rushed to meet them and confronted her: “Unsa Marin! Ako ang nagpapatay sa imong bana?” Shocked by the actuation of the mayor’s twin sister, Marina instantly reacted, “Hoy, wa ko nagstorya ana mam, ikaw ray nagsulti ana ha, tingali baya mam nakahibalo ka nga kinsa ang nagpapatay niya ha kay ikaw may nagpabalhin ni Dito ug duty didto sa highway gipabantay sa suga!” Marina said Abundo suddenly calmed down and brought her to a shade under a tree fronting the town hall and called the members of the police auxiliary. Abundo confronted the task force men in the presence of Marina, “Unsa akoy nagpapatay ni Dito?” No one reacted. They were obviously all afraid, Marina said.

Again, Marina told Abundo that she was not saying she (Abundo) ordered her husband killed, to which statement the mayor’s twin sister responded, “Ayaw banha Marin kay ato ra ning atikon.” The victim’s wife said Abundo then told her, “Kalma na lang Marin kay ako kang tabangan pagpahiluna (sa haya), ayaw na lang kiha-kiha diha kay kinsa may ikiha wala man ta kakita. Ato na lang na hiposon, atong ipahatud sa St. Peter (Funeral Homes).” Marina said that while they were still at wake, the mayor of Carmen, her bodyguards and army task force raided the house of a certain Lolong Gumapac. In that raid, according to Marina, De los Reyes told the people in a prayer vigil inside a nearby chapel, “O, tan-awa si Dito, amo na na gisampolan. Di mo motuo?!” Ronquillo’s widow wondered why the mayor, her twin sister and husband Bong, who is the task force head, had not visited the remains or attended the wake of the victim “nga siya ila mang tawo ug empleyado.” “Gawas pa niining kadudahang mga lihuk nila ni Mayor Che ug Lilit, adunay mga balita nga nagtumbok nila nga dunay kalabotan sa kamatayon sa akong bana,” the widow alleged in her affidavit.

Marina recalled being assured by the Carmen police chief of an impartial investigation, but no result or finding has ever been shown to her. “Nga gumikan sa kahadlok ug kapobrehon, ako walay nahimo sa gidangatan sa akong bana hilabina kay ang nadunggan nako nga dunay kalambigitan sa hitabo mga powerful man sa among lungsod,” she told the NBI thru her statement under oath. Marina’s affidavit was subscribed and sworn to before Public Prosecutor Adolfo M. Doroy. (Ven rebo Arigo)