Cordova traffic chief gunned down

The chief of the traffic enforcement unit of Cordova town in Mactan Island, Cebu was shot dead by two motorcycle-riding assailants early yesterday morning.

Osias Taneo, 45, a resident of barangay Bangbang, Cordova, went up for a morning jog when he was attacked in sitio Puso, barangay Poblacion at 5:50 a.m.

Taneo, who was the head of Cordova Response Emergency Action and Traffic Enforcement (Create), sustained multiple gunshot wounds in the body.

No one claimed to have witnessed the shooting, police said.

Nine spent .45 caliber shells were found in the crime scene.

Chief Insp. Alvin Balio, chief of the Cordova police, said one of the possible motives of the killing that investigators are looking into is the conflict between the traffic group and trisikad drivers in barangay Day-as.

Balio said members of Create have been accosting trisikad drivers for plying the national highway to avoid causing traffic.

Balio said they are also checking if the assailants were the same people who shot a traffic enforcer last March.

Charges have been filed against the suspect who shot Diomedes Antiporta.

Balio refused to identify the suspect who shot Antiporta pending completion of the investigation.

Balio said investigators will be checking also Taneo’s background to see if there are other persons who bore a grudge against him.