COTABATO CITY — Probers of the fatal ambush of a Cotabato bus company manager are looking into the possible involvement of subordinates terminated for pocketing fare collections and other irregularities.
Armando Yap Lu and his spouse, Marilyn, were together in a grey Toyota Fortuner when they were attacked by gunmen on Monday afternoon at a highway in Barangay Kayaga in Kabacan, Cotabato, killing them instantly.
The slain Mr. Lu was manager of a big bus company that has units operating on the routes connecting Cotabato province to cities and provinces in Regions 11 and 12, and to Cagayan de Oro City in Region 10.
Officials of the Kabacan Municipal Police Station told reporters on Wednesday that confidential informants had relayed to them that Mr. Lu terminated bus conductors and ticket inspectors for pocketing earnings they were supposed to remit to their company cashier.
“We need to give investigators enough time to finish their investigation on all angles of that incident,” Col. Gilbert Tuzon, Cotabato provincial police director, said.
Mr. Lu and his wife were on their way home to Carmen, Cotabato from the town proper of Kabacan when they were ambushed by gunmen positioned along the route.
They were both declared dead on arrival by physicians at a hospital where emergency responders brought them for treatment.
Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño Mendoza, chairperson of the multi-sector Provincial Peace and Order Council, reiterated on Wednesday her offer of an earnest incentive to any informant who can help the police identify the perpetrators. — John Felix M. Unson
