Drug case eyed in Laguna cop ambush

CAMP PACIANO RIZAL, Laguna—Police are looking into two major drug cases that Inspector Romeo Criste handled as a motive in the ambush that killed him on Friday.

Sta. Cruz police chief Senior Insp. Meliton Salvadora said that before Criste was assigned to head the police operations unit in Cabuyao City, he was chief of police of Pangil town in Laguna, where he handled two drugs cases.

“We think (the ambush) could be related to these cases, although the investigation is still ongoing,” Salvadora said in a phone interview on Saturday.

Criste, 53, was driving along the national highway in Barangay Bubukal in Sta. Cruz at around 12:30 p.m. on Friday when he was ambushed by unidentified gunmen who, onboard another car, slowed down and opened fire on the police officer’s vehicle.

Criste suffered several bullet wounds, including one in the head that caused his death, Salvadora said.

Investigators recovered empty shells from a .45-cal gun and a M16 rifle from the scene.

Senior Superintendent Fausto Manzanilla, Laguna provincial police director, said Criste sought permission from his superior in Cabuyao City to go home to Pakil town, also in Laguna, (not in Pangil town as earlier reported by police) to attend to a family emergency.

Manzanilla has formed Task Group Criste to investigate the case. Maricar Cinco, Inquirer Southern Luzon