A member of the Philippine National Police Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) examines the site of an ambush at a street near Laguindigan airport, Misamis Oriental Province, southern Philippines.
Manila Times
Iligan City
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) here released yesterday the cartographic sketches of two unidentified suspects in the ambush-slaying attempt on Rep. Vicente “Varf” Belmonte on Thursday in Misamis Oriental.
Lawyer Alex Cabornay, the chief of the local NBI here, said that the cartographic sketches were that of the driver and the gunman armed with an AK-47, who were on the getaway car.
Cabornay issued the initial findings as combined law enforcers of the military and the police continue to conduct surgical operation of the coastal towns west of Misamis Oriental believing that the suspects are still in the area.
Belmonte and his convoy were waylaid by, at least, three vehicles with fully armed men about three kilometres just as the congressman’s party left the Laguindingan airport en route to the national highway about 2pm Thursday.
One of Belmonte’s bodyguards, identified as PO3 Marcos Andres, was killed on the spot while two others of the six wounded, died at the hospital in the neighbouring town of Alubijid.The two other bodyguards who died of gunshot wounds at the Alubijid emergency hospitals were Ian Dumaguing, 29, and Philanan Euatiquo, 40, both of Iligan City.
Those wounded were Belmonte, who sustained a slight gunshot wound on the right leg; Ruel Tieho, 37; Don Rio, 52 as well as Noel Jo, 23, the driver, who was taken to the Mindanao Medical Centre in Cagayan De Oro City. Hospital authorities released Belmonte past 4 pm Thursday and was escorted by heavily armed members of the military, the police, and the NBI on their way to Iligan City.