3 suspects in killing of doctor in CDO arrested

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY: Three suspects, including the self-confessed gunman, in the killing of a medical doctor here were arrested Friday morning in Balingoan, a coastal town of Misamis Oriental, 89 kilometers east of the city.

Balingoan police chief Lt. Valiente Macarayo identified the suspects as 30-year-old Jomar Adlaw of Maramag, 39-year-old Marjun Cabog of Don Carlos and 37-year-old Joel Nacua of Lingayon, Valencia City, all in the province of Bukidnon.

Macarayo said that the fourth suspect, identified as former military man Rene Dortosa of Balingoan, is now a subject of police manhunt.

According to Macarayo, Dortosa was the alleged middleman who hired the three suspects for P150,000.

The suspects were arrested in a joint operation by police officers from Cagayan de Oro City, the provincial command and the municipal police station of Balingoan, less than 24 hours after the shooting incident took place in Cagayan de Oro City on Thursday morning.

Recovered from the suspects were two fully loaded .45 caliber pistols and a hand grenade, Macarayo said.

Nacua confessed to the police that he was the one who shot Dr. Ruel Winston Andutan, medical director of Maria Reyna Xavier University Hospital here.

Nacua said that Dortosa planned the shooting and provided them with the firearms used in the killing of Andutan.

He narrated to the police that Dortosa told them that the target was a killer, married and was seeing another woman. He also said that Cabog drove the getaway motorcycle while Adlaw stayed in the safe house.

Nacua admitted that he shot Andutan at close range and that he fired three more shots as they retreated from the scene.

He said that on Thursday afternoon, he boarded a passenger bus going to another safe house in Balingoan while Dortosa, Adlaw and Cabog left for Balingoan morning of the same day.

“I did not know that the subject was a doctor. I apologized to the family of Doctor Andutan. I did it only for money,” Nacua said in his local tongue.