Cops eye 'persons of interest' in Davao Sur journo slay

DAVAO CITY – The special investigation task group (SITG) probing the death of journalist Orlando “Dondon” Dinoy in Bansalan, Davao del Sur is optimistic that it will solve the case soon.

Col. Giusseppe Geralde, the director of the Davao del Sur Police Provincial Office and the SITG commander for Davao del Sur, told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in an interview Thursday that he remains confident that the case will be solved in due time.

“I am very confident. We have evidence of the possible motives and we already have persons of interest at hand,” he said.

Geralde added that the SITG will meet on Saturday and conduct the process of elimination.

“All the possible angles will be discussed there and then we will have the process of elimination. Elimination as to the persons of interest and the identified motives until the strongest evidence will be left,” he said.

Geralde said as to the technical aspect, the recovered evidence on the crime scene will be subjected to cross-matching with other crime incidents involving a .45 caliber pistol.

“We already submitted it to the crime laboratory,” he said.

On October 30, Dinoy, a print and broadcast journalist in Davao del Sur, was gunned down with a .45-caliber pistol at about 6 p.m. inside his rented apartment in Bansalan town.

He was a reporter for Newsline Philippines in Davao City and a volunteer anchor of Digos City-based Energy FM doing weather reports from Mondays to Fridays.

He was also a former correspondent of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Sun Star SuperBalita.

Initial police reports showed that a still unidentified suspect or suspects barged into his makeshift broadcast office inside the apartment and shot him at close range.

“We are looking into his previous Facebook posts to investigate. We also checked the content of his news in his current media outlet and we have found out that he delivered balanced information,” Geralde said. (PNA)