Taxi driver tagged in killing of poll officer in Iloilo City surrenders

ILOILO CITY—A taxi driver being hunted by the police in the fatal shooting of an election officer in Iloilo City surrendered Monday evening.

Rodney de los Reyes (not De los Santos as previously reported), 37, admitted shooting Raymund Valera at an intersection in Molo District but claimed he did so in self-defense.

“He pointed a gun at me so I shot him first,” Delos Reyes told the Philippine Daily Inquirer at his detention cell at the Molo District police station on Tuesday.

He said he shot Valera when the election officer pursued him after he overtook the victim’s Isuzu Crosswind vehicle in Arevalo District.

“I did not understand why he kept on blocking my path and did not want me to overtake his vehicle,” he said.

Valera, 52, election officer of Dumangas town in Iloilo, died Sunday evening at the Medical City hospital while being treated for bullet wounds.

The bullet first hit the victim’s right arm and then pierced his lungs, Senior Insp. Rio Maymay, Molo police station chief, said.

Delos Reyes, who has been driving a taxi operated by the Melvin transport company surrendered to Maymay around 8:30 p.m. in Lapaz District in Iloilo City. He was accompanied by his lawyer Edel Julio Romero.

The suspect also turned over an unlicensed .45-caliber handgun believed to be used in the shooting. Police subjected Delos Reyes to a paraffin test.

A ballistic test will be done and the results will be compared to two slugs recovered at the crime scene, according to Maymay.

Investigators are also tracing the owner of a Glock 22 .40-caliber pistol found on the floor of the driver’s seat of Valera’s vehicle.

Maymay said the recovered handgun did not match the firearm license card recovered from Valera, which was for a different firearm.

Lawyer Elizabeth Doronila, the Comelec’s Ilolo provincial election supervisor, earlier said it was unlikely that Valera’s work was connected to his killing.

But she said she has asked the police to furnish her office results of their investigation.

“We hope that he will be given justice and his killing resolved,” she told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.  SFM