News Briefs

Ex-Ozamiz City vice mayor slain

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—A former vice mayor of Ozamiz City was gunned down by still unidentified men as he stepped out of a pawnshop in Barangay Tagalogan in Ozamiz on Thursday, police said. Roland Romero, former city vice mayor and a member of the Misamis Occidental provincial board, was stepping out of the pawnshop when four men, on board two motorcycles, shot him at close range. Investigators recovered six spent shells from a .45 cal. pistol from the crime scene. Romero ran but lost as mayor in 2013. Police have yet to determine the motive of the attack. —JIGGER J. JERUSALEM

Rebel returnee gunned down

TAGUM CITY—A former communist rebel was shot and killed by two men in Monkayo town, Compostela Valley province on Thursday, police said. Chief Insp. Jerry Abrogina, acting police chief of Monkayo, said Ruel Labrador, 50, a former New People’s Army rebel who had turned to banana trading after his surrender, was driving his motorcycle in Barangay Poblacion at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday when two men on another motorcycle shot him. Senior Supt. Armando de Leon, acting Compostela Valley police director, said their records showed Labrador had standing arrest warrants for murder and other crimes. —FRINSTON LIM

Cebu village execs sued over drug raid

CEBU CITY—The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Friday filed administrative and criminal complaints against officials of Barangay Ermita for their failure to cooperate with government agents during a raid on a suspected drug den in the village last week. Yogi Ruiz, PDEA Central Visayas regional director, filed the complaints for gross misconduct, gross neglect of duty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service in the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas. The officials were also sued for violating Article 233 of the Revised Penal Code, which penalizes any public official who “fail to lend his cooperation towards the administration of justice or other public service.” The PDEA said the village officials did not cooperate during a raid conducted in a “tiangge” (flea market) for “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) in a section of the Carbon public market on Nov. 6. —IZOBELLE PULGO

Hunt on for man behind ATM scam

CEBU CITY—Police are looking for a man, reportedly a foreigner, who was behind unauthorized withdrawals from bank accounts of eight people in this city. Senior Supt. Joel Doria, Cebu City police director, said investigators are reviewing photographs and files from their anticyber crime unit to establish the identity of the man behind the crime, who accessed the accounts through automated teller machines (ATM). At least eight people, including Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak, reported there were unauthorized withdrawals from their accounts in ATMs in the cities of Cebu and Naga. The series of unauthorized withdrawals from the bank accounts of seven persons happened inside a shopping mall in Naga City in southern Cebu on Nov. 16. They lost a total of P423,000, police said. The largest amount the suspect stole from a single bank account was P128,000, which belonged to the wife of an overseas Filipino worker. Tumulak said the suspect had started withdrawing money from his Land Bank of the Philippines payroll account on Sept. 19 but he discovered this only on Nov. 9. —ADOR VINCENT S. MAYOL