4 persons of interest eyed in Dr. Perlas’ murder

Dr. Dreyfuss Perlas (PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK COURTESY OF TOTO PERLAS)

KAPATAGAN, Lanao del Norte – Police authorities here said they were pursuing four “persons of interest” in the March 1 murder of Sapad town health officer Dreyfuss Perlas.

Senior Supt. Faro Antonio Olaguera, the Lanao del Norte police director, did not name the four but added that their identities came out after the Northern Mindanao police’s crime laboratory in Cagayan de Oro City “obtained valuable information from the cellular phone of Dr. Perlas.”

“There are four persons of interest that could give us better clue to solve the crime,” Olaguera said.

He said the police was hoping that the identification of the persons “would help solve the crime.”

“We have already compared notes during our meeting with the (National Bureau of Investigation) and we have common information so far to focus with,” Olaguera said.

He also said that a possible witness “willing to share information” with the police, has surfaced.

Olaguera said the witness, who was also on a motorcycle, initially recounted seeing Perlas falling on the ground after being shot.

He said the witness recalled that Perlas, in a loud voice, asked why the suspect had shot him.

The 31-year old Perlas, who came to Sapad through the Doctors to the Barrios program in 2012, was shot as he was passing by Barangay Maranding Annex here on his way home to Lala town, where he temporarily stayed. He had reportedly came from his station in Sapad town.

Olaguera said the police were also waiting for the report of the police’s crime laboratory on the data obtained from the mobile phone of a member of the Rebolusyunaryong Partido ng Manggagawa-Mindanao (RPMM), a breakaway faction of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Agapito Tamparong Democer was killed on Saturday when he allegedly traded shots with soldiers and policemen who came to arrest him for his alleged involvement in the recent murder of two persons and the wounding of another here.

Lt. Col. Audie Mongao, the commander of the Army’s 15th Infantry Battalion, said Democer was also a suspect in the Perlas murder.

He described Democer as a communist rebel and that the latter might have mistaken Perlas for a military informant.

Perlas had joined medical missions that the 15th IB had conducted in Lanao del Norte and was even a medical retainer of another Army unit in the past, Mongao added.

But Harold Fernandez, the head of the National Operational Command of the Revolutionary Proletariat Army of the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa – Mindanao (RPA-RPMM), said in a statement that Democer, also known as Ka Ruben, had never been a gun-for-hire.

Fernandez also said Democer was unarmed and was only trying to evade the approaching composite team of soldiers and police.

As this developed, the reward for any tipster who could help solve the Perlas murder case had risen to P150,000.

Kapatagan Vice Mayor Benjie Baguio said the Sangguniang Bayan had approved the setting aside of P50,000 as additional reward for those who could help solve the doctor’s killing.

Earlier, Gov. Imelda Dimaporo announced that the provincial government had set aside P100,000 as reward for those who could provide valuable information that could lead to the resolution of the case.  SFM