KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/7 February)—Police in North Cotabato filed Thursday murder complaints against two of the alleged killers of Kabacan Vice Mayor Policronio Dulay.
Sr. Insp. Rodel Calo, head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Team (CIDT) North Cotabato, identified the suspects as Jomar Pulindao Utala, 26, and Batong Magalib, both residents of Barangay Madidis in Datu Paglas, Maguindanao.
Of the two, only Utala was arrested and was placed under the custody of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in Kidapawan City.
Calo said Utala was apprehended last week at a highway checkpoint in Kabacan town for carrying a .45 caliber pistol ammunition. He was immediately locked at the Kabacan jail.
The police official said that a witness eventually identified Utala as allegedly the one who shot Dulay.
The witness, a worker in one of the establishments, claimed he was just a few feet away from where Dulay was killed.
Calo said the witness also identified the other suspect from the photographs of the most wanted persons in the area. Magalib, allegedly the driver of the getaway motorcycle, is still being hunted.
Police remained clueless on the identity of the mastermind.
On January 11, Dulay was about to board his motorcycle parked outside a department store in Poblacion, Kabacan when the gunman shot him several times.
The suspect then walked to his cohort waiting on a motorcycle, and fled towards Pikit town.
Authorities have considered politics among the motives in the killing of Dulay because “he has no known enemies.”
The victim was seeking reelection in the May 2013 polls (Malu Cadelina Manar/MindaNews)