By CRIS DIAZ, Executive Editor and GERRY LEE GORIT, Reporter
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The alleged mastermind in the ambush-slaying of a hospital medical director here has surrendered to the top PNP officials in Northern Mindanao, Sunday afternoon, January 23, 2022.
Balingoan vice mayoralty candidate Richard Gepte, 51, has reportedly sent surrender feelers to PNP regional director Brig Gen Benjamin Acorda and Cagayan de Oro City POlice Office (COCPO) director Aaron Mandia.
As this developed, both the PNP executives personally went to the Carmelites Monastery yesterday in Barangay Camaman-an, this city, where Gepte seek refuge at said religious group for fear of his safety and security.
Gepte was tagged by the three suspects from Bukidnon as the alleged mastermind in the killing of Andutan, based on the revelation of Rene Tortusa, who is still at large at press time. Tortusa was the ‘middleman’ who contacted them while in Bukidnon and offered them the project to assasinate Andutan.
COCPO spokesperson Maj Evan Viñas told a local radio that both the PNP top executives went to the location where Gepte was staying and personally served the arrest warrant issued by RTC Branch 21 Presiding Judge Gil Bollozos, for the murder of Maria Reyna – Xavier Unversity Hospital medical director Dr Raul Winston Andutan.
THE KILLING
Three suspects, one of them confessed as the alleged trigger man, in the shooting to death of Dr Andutan were earlier arrested in Balingoan, a coastal town of Misamis Oriental, 89 kilometers east of here.
Lt. Valiente Macarayo, the town police chief of Balingoan, has earlier identified the suspects as Jomar Adlao 30, Maramag, Marjun Cabog, 39, of Don Carlos, Joel Nacua, 37, farmer, of Lingayon, Valencia City, all of the province of Bukidnon. Nacua confirmed he was the triggerman who shot Andutan at close range while Cabog and Adlao acted as look outs.
Macarayo said that the fourth suspect identified as Rene Turtosa of Balingoan, allegedly a former military man, is still the subject of police manhunt.
According to Macarayo, Tortusa was the alleged middleman who hired the three suspects in consideration of P 150,000.
He said that the suspects were collared by a joint operatives from Cagayan de Oro City, the provincial command and elements of the municipal police station of Balingoan in less than 24 hours after the shooting incident.
Recovered from the suspects were two fully loaded .45 caliber pistols and a hand grenade, Macarayo said
One of the suspects identified as Joel Nacua confessed to police probers that he was the trigger man of Dr. Raul Winston Andutan, Medical Director, of Maria Reyna Xavier University Hospital here.
Nacua said that Rene Dortosa, the planner of the shooting, provided them the firearms used in the shooting to death of Andutan.
He narrated to the police that Dortosa told them that the target person was a killer and has another woman aside from the wife.
He said that Marjun Cabog drove the getaway motorcycle while Jomar Adlaw stayed in the safe house.
Nacua said that he shot Andutan at close range while he fired three more shots as they retreated to a safe house in Camaman-an.
He said that on Thursday afternoon he boarded a passenger bus to another safehouse in Balingoan while the three others Tortosa, Adlao and Cabog left for Balingoan Thursday morning, a day after the killing of Dr. Andutan..
