Police say crimes in Davao del Sur not done by organized group

Davao del Sur map. INQUIRER FILES

DIGOS CITY, Davao del Sur — The Police Regional Office (PRO) 11, which covers the Davao region, has allayed fears that the recent spate of crimes in Davao del Sur is attributable to an organized group.

PRO-11 spokesperson Major Eudisan Gultiano said no group has been identified to be behind the incidents.

Davao del Sur was recently rocked by a series of robberies and murders, the most recent of which was the killing of a fish vendor on Wednesday evening in Barangay Zone 1 here.

According to Digos City police chief Lt. Col. Hamlet Lerios, 29-year-old Eric Mediano was heading to Sta. Cruz town on a motorbike from a cockpit arena when waylaid by a motorcycle-riding gunman upon reaching Purok Malipayon of Barangay Zone 1.

Mediano was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. Investigators found six empty shells of caliber .45-pistol at the crime scene.

Police investigators said Mediano could have been tailed by the suspects from the cockpit arena.

Four days earlier, or on April 1, another fish vendor in Bansalan town, Heart Che Tungal, 30, cheated death after being shot at close range while tending to his stall along the national highway in Barangay Tubod at past 4 p.m.

Mediano is the third murder victim in the province within six days. A couple in their 60s were found dead with hack wounds in their home in Bansalan town on March 30.

Aside from killings, there had been a succession of robbery incidents in the province involving suspects who were armed, with at least one case when the victim was also raped.

READ: Robbers strip rice trader of cash, clothes in Davao del Sur town

Amid these, Davao Region police director Brig. Gen. Alden Delvo ordered the provincial police office to immediately resolve the cases.

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