Kidapawan City – At least 10 persons will be charged with murder in connection with the recent killing of the chief of police of Carmen, North Cotabato, Mayor Moises Arendain said Monday.
Arendain said the police will file the charges on Tuesday, 1 September, against the suspects in the August 26 killing of Major Joan Resurrecion, who led his men in pursuing a group of holdapers who shot dead a foreigner.
Five of the suspects engaged the team of the fallen police officer in a shootout near the riverbank of the Rio Grande de Mindanao, the mayor said.
The rest were considered as accomplices or “lookouts” of the gunmen, he added.
Arendain refused to identify the suspects pending the issuance of the warrants of arrest from the court, to avoid jeopardizing the operation to catch them.
The Cotabato Police Provincial Office will spearhead the filing of the case.
Arendain assured the family, relatives and friends of Resurrecion “that justice will be accorded to them.”
The mayor said Resurrecion’s death is a big loss in the local government’s fight against the coronavirus disease pandemic.
“Major Resurrecion was a working police officer. He led the highway check especially in the town’s borders. He acted as a frontliner. He made sure he implemented the quarantine protocols and imposed penalties to violators, regardless of their tribe or religion,” Arendain said.
(Malu Cadelina-Manar/ MindaNews)
