SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews / 15 Sep) – A robbery suspect arrested late in August for victimizing a police officer in Siargao Island has been implicated in the shooting of a radio journalist in Surigao City.
Although Junrie Dulpina was nabbed on account of an arrest warrant issued by Regional Trial Court Dapa Branch Judge Cesar Bordalba in connection with a robbery case that victimized a police officer assigned in Dapa town, the policeman investigating the shooting of DXRS-RMN anchor Saturnino “Jan” Estanio Jr. happened to find resemblance in Dulpina’s face to the computerized cartographic sketch that was based on the description of one of the eyewitnesses.
PO3 Mark Anthony Miole said he showed Dulpina’s picture to the eyewitness, who then confirmed that the suspect was indeed the motorcycle passenger who fired shots that hit Estanio, the latter’s son and a neighbor.
Miole said charges of attempted murder charges and child abuse had already been filed against Dulpina before the city prosecutor’s office last Tuesday, aside from the robbery charge he is facing.
He was arrested last August 23 in Barangay Luna in this city. He was reportedly armed with a short firearm and a sachet of shabu was found in his possession.
Dulpina admitted stealing the policeman’s M16 rifle and sold it for P28,000. The policeman, who is hoping he could still recover the firearm so he won’t be in trouble, has requested not to be identified.
While Dulpina admitted to the robbery case filed against him, he denied the accusation that he was responsible for the June 30 shooting of Estanio and the two other victims – Estanio’s 12-year-old son JV and neighbor Allan Canibel, 52.
The suspect, who turned 18 last Sept. 5 while inside the police’s detention cell, also denied he had with him a sachet of shabu in his pocket when he was arrested, as the police claimed.
Estanio, 41, suffered three gunshot wounds on his back during the gun attack by the riding-in-tandem assailants outside his house in Sitio Bioborjan just a few hours after President Rodrigo R. Duterte was sworn as president of the country. (Roel N. Catoto / MindaNews)
