BANGUED, Abra – Police here filed murder charges against the identified gunman in the brutal murder of a mediaman in the province who is also simultaneously working as an administrative officer of the provincial prosecutor’s office during a shooting incident evening of October 8 last year.
Senior Superintendent Albertlito S. Garcia, Abra provincial police director, identified the charged suspect as Jay-jay Tugade, a native of Tayum town, who is also facing double murder and illegal possession of firearms before the local courts but no warrants of arrest were still issued against him.
The police official said the suspect is an alleged member of a notorious local gun for hire group that continues to operate in the province and the Ilocos Region.
“We were able to build up the case against the suspect because of the positive identity done by one of our witnesses on the photo of the suspect in our files and the separate testimony of the victim’s wife that the suspect was seen in the vicinity of their residence several days prior to the shooting incident that resulted in the mediaman’s untimely death,” Garcia stressed.
It can be recalled that around 6:25 pm of October 8, 2014, Jacinto Turquiza, 47, married, who is both a radio and print media personality in the province an administrative officer of the provincial prosecutor’s office, was shot by still unident5ified motorcycle-riding assassins along Zone V, here.
Torquiza sustained multiple gunshot wou7nds in the different parts of his body that caused his instantaneous death.
Gov. Esutaquio Bersamin said the filing of the case against Turquiza’s murderer is just the initial headway towards helping probers identify the mastermind once the suspect will be arrested and be forced to identify the brains behind the untimely demise of the media personality and government worker.
“We are elated that the murder of Turquiza is gaining headway and we hope that the next step that will be undertaken by our reliable investigators is to identify the brains, charge him and subsequently arrest him so that he will be made to answer for the crime he committed,” Bersamin said.
Bersamin called on whoever known the suspect’s whereabouts to help police investigators so that they will be able to get the P200,000 cash reward earlier set aside for the purpose to tracking down Turquiza’s killers.
P100,000 was raised by the Guardians for Reconciliation, Advancement and Cooperation for Economic Prosperity (GRACE), an anti-corruption and anti-criminality volunteer organization while P100,000 was set aside by the Abra Provincial Peace and Order Council through the re3quest of Bersamin in order to fastrakc the arrest of the killers and mastermind of one of the celebrated murder cases in the province right after the May 2013 most peaceful elections in the province.
Bersamin appealed to local residents that it is now high time to embrace lasting peace as one of the major programs of the provincial government in order to prevent the province from being projected as a violent-stricken province which drives away investors.
