NBI says it's busy, can't probe on Libungan mayor's murder
Peace and Order • 16:15 PM Wed Jan 13, 2021
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By:
John M. Unson
Coroners carry the cadaver of Mayor Christopher Cuan away from the spot where he was killed. (Phoco courtesy of Esther Roque)
COTABATO CITY --- The National Bureau of Investigation cannot probe yet on the murder of Libungan Mayor Christopher Cuan and his driver Edwin Ihao due to big workload that need attention.
This was reported January 13 by the national newspaper Philippine Star, quoting Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra as saying.
The NBI, which is under the Department of Justice, is swamped with investigative work, according to Guevarra.
He said it is up for the Philippine National Police to look into the January 11 killing of Cuan and Ihao in Barangay Cabaruyan, Libungan.
Gov. Nancy Catamco has requested the intelligence units of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division to help the North Cotabato provincial police put closure to the incident.
Catamco, chairperson of the North Cotabato provincial peace and order council, condemned the brutal killing of Cuan and his driver.
They were shot dead by still unidentified gunmen while inspecting the cockpit he was constructing in Barangay Cabaruyan, just after arriving in Libungan from Davao City.
Libungan is located in the first district of North Cotabato.
Investigators are still trying to establish the identities of the culprits, according to Col. Henry Villar, director of the North Cotabato provincial police.
“I have requested the Libungan municipal police and the provincial police to cooperate in identifying who were responsible for the murder of Mayor Cuan and his driver,” Catamco said.
The slain mayor survived an attempt on his life in 2019, where a sniper armed with an M16 assault rifle on board a tinted van shot him from a distance but missed, hitting instead a utility worker in the Libungan municipal government.