CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews / 26 December) — A policeman who served as a close-in bodyguard of slain Clarin town mayor David Navarro, was killed in an ambush by two motorcycle-riding suspects just outside the Philippine National Police (PNP) regional headquarters in Camp Alagar here on Saturday afternoon.
Major Evan Viñas, Cagayan de Oro Police spokesperson, said Police Officer 1 Roy Aguas was riding on his motorcycle and was going home when the suspects followed him along C.M. Recto Avenue, Barangay Lapasan, this city at 4:30 pm on Saturday.
Viñas said the suspects opened fire at Aguas as soon as they got near him, killing him instantly.
“The suspects also took the service firearm of the victim before they fled,” Viñas told MindaNews by phone.
Viñas said the 40-year old Aguas was assigned to the PNP Regional Headquarters Support Group.
He said investigators are pursuing the possibility that the killing was linked to the killing of Clarin Mayor David Navarro, whom he had earlier served as close-in guard.
Clarin was killed in an ambush in Cebu City on October 25, 2019 while on his way to the City Prosecutor’s Office for inquest proceedings, a day after he was arrested for physical injuries and acts of lasciviousness he reportedly committed against two massage therapists.
The Cebu Daily News reported that Navarro was wearing a bullet proof vest and was with two police escorts when shot by still unidentified gunmen at close range.
Navarro was among those named in President Duterte’s ‘narco list’ in 2016 and 2019.
Viñas said Aguas was dismissed as a police officer in 2018 for “serious administrative offenses” but Mayor Navarro reportedly interceded on behalf of Aguas that led to his return to the police service in 2019, before the mayor was killed.
Viñas said the PNP regional office did not assign Aguas to Clarin or to Mayor Navarro but assigned him at the Regional Headquarters Support Group in Camp Alagar here. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
