CAGAYAN de Oro 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez yesterday confirmed that a security aide he terminated for alleged drug addiction was one of the suspected gunmen who killed Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo and eight others on Saturday.
Rodriguez said he terminated former Army Sgt. Joric Garrido Labrador in 2014 after officials from the 4th Infantry Division informed him of the soldier’s drug addiction.
“I immediately terminated his services because I don’t like working with people addicted to drugs,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said Labrador who was formerly assigned to the Military Intelligence Battalion at the 4th Infantry Division in Barangay Patag here, worked for him for four years as his security detail.
He said the 4th Infantry Division detailed Labrador and a fellow Army soldier as his security detail as congressman for the 2nd district of Cagayan de Oro.
Rodriguez said sometime in 2014, the 4th Infantry Division informed him that they have terminated Labrador and he followed suit.
“I am saddened that Labrador was not able to break from his shabu addiction. He was good security personnel until the drugs caught up with him,” Rodriguez said.
Police arrested Labrador and two other Army soldiers — all of them highly trained operatives — in Barangay Cansumalig, Bayawan City following the attack of Governor Degamo.
The two other suspects were also former army soldiers. They are identified as Sgt. Joven Calibjo Javier, a member of the elite Light Reaction Battalion who went awol in 2018; and Corporal Benjie Rodriguez, a resident of Bonifacio, Misamis Occidental, and a member of the Jolo-based Army 35th Infantry Battalion who also went on Awol.
The military said all of the three had undergone Special Forces and Close Quarter Battle pieces of training.
Police seized seven M16 rifles, two B40 rocket-propelled grenades with five ammunitions; six Kevlar vests; one rifle case, three pairs of boots, two military uniforms, and a gray sweatshirt.
Gunmen fired at Degamo while he was distributing food assistance in his home in Pamplona, Negros Oriental last Saturday killing him and eight others.
The killing of Degamo came a month after gunmen attacked the convoy of Lanao del Sur Mamintal Adiong Jr, wounding him and killing four of his bodyguards.
