By Noel Najarro
BUTUAN City––Two senior police officials in Caraga were ordered relieved by Camp Crame on Tuesday in connection with the abduction, and subsequent shooting deaths of Loreto Mayor Dario Otaza of Agusan del Sur, and his second son Daryl on Monday evening.
Agusan del Sur police director Senior Supt. Joseph Plaza and Butuan police director Senior Supt. Francisco Dunggo Jr. were ordered “administratively and temporarily relieved” from their respective posts pending probe of possible lapses on the part of the police relative to the incident.
The accountability audit team from the police national headquarters headed by Police Director Generoso Cerbo Jr., chief of the directorate for investigation, and Director Isagani Nerez, head for police operations in Eastern Mindanao, composed the probe body.
Police spokesman for Caraga Supt. Martin Gamba said it would be on the discretion of the probe body to call on other police officials for the inquiry.
Gamba said that the accountability and audit team may present their findings and recommendations to Camp Crame.
The coming over of the national investigation team was earlier announced by Caraga police director Chief Supt. Vert Chavez.
The two victims were abducted by about 18 heavily armed men who were disguised as National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents, clad in dark blue polo or sweatshirts marked NBI, and brandishing long high powered firearms at 6:15 pm on Monday.
The raiders, who introduced themselves as NBI agents, said that they were doing search on the mayor’s residence for drugs and firearms. No documents however were shown or presented and according to the witnesses, four of the mayor’s bodyguards were bound.
After finding a number of firearms, cellular phones of the occupants, cash and other valuables, the raiders forced Mayor Otaza and his 27-year old son into a black Hyundai van (KDZ-179) and sped off.
Both of the victims’ bulletiddled cadavers were discovered at 6 am the following day at Barangay Bitan-agan, another barangay 20 kilometers away from the city proper.
How the bodies ended there while the getaway vehicle was recovered by the authorities already abandoned in Barangay New Gingoog, Esperanza town in Agusan del Sur is among the subjects of an ongoing investigation, Dungo said during a press briefing at the Butuan city hall following the crisis committee meeting.
A composite computerized image of the two suspects were also presented during the press forum.
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