CEBU CITY – As she got down on her knees, a weeping Cristine Claire Bontuyan planted a kiss on the bloodied face of a man lying unresponsive on a pavement.
“Papa! Papa! Please wake up! Let’s go home!” she screamed.
The highly emotional scene happened at a busy road just across a mall where the woman’s father Police Capt. Delfin Bontuyan was gunned down by motorcycle-riding assailants past 2 p.m. last Tuesday.
The victim, who drove a motorcycle, came from a court hearing in Qimonda Hall of Justice on North Reclamation Area. He stopped for traffic at the intersection of Pope John Paul Ave. and Juan Luan St. across a mall.
As the traffic light turned green, two men on a motorcycle drove beside the policeman before the backrider shot him. Another motorcycle with two men on board stopped in front of the victim and the backrider fired more shots at the victim.
The bloodied policeman slumped on a hood of a taxi. He suffered bullet wounds in the forehead and back of the body.
Two taxi drivers said the attack happened in front of them but they failed to identify the assailants since they wore full-faced helmets.
The daring attack took place just a stone’s throw away from the Mabolo Police Station.
Police Major Miles Damoslog, deputy chief of the Mabolo police, said responding police tried to intercept the assailants to no avail.
Damoslog said 11 empty shells of an unknown caliber were recovered from the crime scene. A .22 caliber pistol and P30,000 cash were found in the victim’s possession.
The motive of the killing is still under investigation but according to Police Brig. Gen. Debold Sinas, chief of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas, investigators are trying to check previous intelligence reports that the victim was involved in the illegal drugs trade.
Sinas said reports that Bontuyan was involved in the illegal drug trade were the reason why he was transferred to the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) in 2016 when President Duterte assumed office.
From CAR, Bontuyan was reassigned to the Sulu Provincial Police Office in Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. Bontuyan was the chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Central Visayas before he was moved to Mindanao.
Sinas added Bontuyan was suspected to be a “narco cop” and a “ninja cop.”
“There is difference between narco cops and ninja cops. Narco cops are those protecting pushers or drug lords. They might not be directly involved in selling illegal drugs but they are protecting drug lords and pushers. The ninja cops are those policemen involved in recycling and selling of seized illegal drugs. They are those who bungle drug cases. When they handle cases against drug suspects, instead of selling, they downgrade the case to possession which is a lesser and bailable offense,” said Sinas.
Sinas said no charges were filed against the slain policeman. “Since there was no evidence, transferring him was the best thing to do,” said Sinas.
Sinas said police are not discounting the possibility that a drug syndicate was behind the killing. “We are checking on the possibility that maybe he promised that he would work for the dismissal of some drug cases when he was still with CIDG but the promise wasn’t delivered after he was relieved so the persons involved got back at him,” said Sinas. (Calvin Cordova)
