COTABATO CITY – Authorities have tagged four member-workers of the Kapa Community Ministry International Inc. in the murder last month of Kidapawan City radio broadcaster Eduardo Dizon.
Two of the suspects have surfaced to turn witnesses and were presented last Thursday by Secretary Martin Andanar of the Presidential Communications Operation Office and Presidential Task Force on Media Security chief Joel Egco.
Andanar and Egco named the two suspects-turned-witnesses as Renato Sardoncillo and Hilario Lape Jr.
They said the duo had confessed being members of the KMCII operating in Kidapawan City and North Cotabato and knowledgeable about the circumstances behind the murder of Brigada Station branch manager and anchor Dizon last July 10 in Kidapawan.
“The suspects, based on their affidavits, are Kapa members who are also media people themselves,” Andanar said.
Lape said he allegedly heard Dante Tabusares, alias “Bong Encarnacion,” KMCII coordinator and head of Kapa “media team” for North Cotabato, ordering the killing of Dizon in a meeting.
Sardoncillo claimed he saw the actual shooting of Dizon in his car on a road junction in Kidapawan.
The alleged gunman, Jonel Herosaga, was identified through closed-circuit camera television footage, according to Egco.
Dizon, who died from bullet wounds in head, had been adverse in commentaries against KCMII operations, police said.
Prior to the shooting incident, Dizon and his wife, Madonna, went to the Kidapawan police office and reported for blotter about their receipt of direct verbal threats from Bong Encarnacion, police and PTFoMS investigations said.
Andanar said the two witnesses will be given security and protection in their decision to turn witnesses because the alleged “mastermind” was believed “influential” in Kidapawan and North Cotabato.
Widow Madonna said was “100 percent sure” the KCMII group was behind her husband’s murder.
The KKCMII is more known as KAPA for its slogan – Kabos Padatuon (enrich the poor). President Duterte had earlier a shutdown of KAPA operations due to its perceived fleeting pyramiding schemes. (Ali Macabalang and Argyll Geducos)