2 probe teams formed to solve Baldomero slay

Two police investigating teams will be formed to fast track the probe in the murder of Aklan-based activist Fernando Baldomero, the first recorded case of extrajudicial killing under the two-week-old Aquino administration. One of the teams will be tasked to find more witnesses in the case while the other will look into past incidents that may have direct connections with the murder, according to Chief Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao, head of the Police Regional Office 6. “In the absence of additional witnesses or evidence that may lead to the identification of the gunman, the motive of the murder of the victim remains to be known," Pagdilao said in a statement released Monday. Baldomero, a councilor in Lezo town and provincial coordinator of Bayan Muna party-list group, was gunned down last July 5, or five days after President Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III assumed office. The military had earlier said that Baldomero’s murder may have been a case of “communist purging," but Bayan Muna described the claim as “hogwash." Pagdilao said the two teams would be under the Special Investigation Task Group “Baldomero." Pagdilao said he wants the investigators to find out if there are witnesses who have noticed suspicious looking people who may have tracked the movements of the victim before the murder was carried out. He also want the investigating team to focus on the grenade attack incident at the residence of Baldomero early this year and find out if it has anything to do with the murder. The investigating teams are ordered to gather as many photographs of known assassins, gunmen, henchmen of politicians as well as hit men of rebel groups that witnesses may possibly identify as the suspect in the killing. Pagdilao described Baldomero’s murder as a “must solve case." - KBK, GMANews.TV