Cabanatuan City – – Drug related?
A policeman assigned with the Provincial Public Safety Company (PPSC) of the Nueva Ecija Police Provincial Office (NEPPO) together with his back rider were killed in an ambush at Purok Perigola, Barangay Valdefuente while riding the cop’s Yamaha Sniper motorcycle.
In his report, PSupt Ponciano Zafra identified the slain policeman as PO1 Luis Esteban Cordova III of Barangay Batitang, Zaragosa, Nueva Ecija, while his back rider is Ramon Barros of Barangay Sta. Monica, Rizal town.
Zafra said, “the two were literally peppered with bullets from high powered automatic guns by still unidentified gunmen”.
Thirteen shells of caliber .40 and 7 spent ammunition shells of Cal. 9MM where found at the crime scene.
Zafra also disclosed that “4 sachets of shabu, a fully loaded Colt .45 caliber pistol and a cal. 22 with one fired and 4 live ammos were found from the body of the backrider Barros.
Cordova and Barros died from multiple gunshot wounds on their bodies.
“We are still investigating the motive of the double murder. What we know so far is: the back rider is a known drug personality from Rizal town, Cordova is not assigned with the Drug Enforcement Unit but with the PPSC Motorpool unit, one of the 2 guns used could be an Uzi rifle and the killers could have been riding a car”, disclosed Zafra.
Cordova is the 3rd policeman killed in Nueva Ecija in a span of 2 months./Nelson Bolos