BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Police probers are still facing a blank wall on investigations into the identity of the gunman and the motive behind in the murder of barangay chairman Danilo Dautil, Wednesday night in Brgy. Cabcab, Isabela, Negros Occidental.
Dautil, 62, succumbed to two gunshot wounds, at the back of his head and near his right armpit, after he was shot by an unidentified gunman while on his way home, on board his driven motorcycle, in Brgy. Cabcab, about 18 kilometers from the poblacion of Isabela town, police said.
PCapt. Joseph Partidas, Isabela police chief, disclosed that Dautil,62, was declared dead on arrival at the Ignacio Lopez Arroyo Sr. Memorial District Hospital in Isabela town.
An empty cartridge of still unidentified caliber of firearm was recovered by responding Isabela town policemen and 62nd Infantry Battalion soldiers at scene of incident, a rugged one-way hacienda road with planted fully grown sugarcane on both sides.
The motive of the shooting incident is yet to be established by the Isabela town police.
According to Partidas Dautil, the barangay captain of Cabcab, Isabela, is actively involved with projects of Local Task Force Ending Local Armed Communist Conflict (LTF-ELCAC), that led to the diminishing rebel influence in his barangay.
In 2018, a former barangay chairman was also killed by suspected NPA rebels in the same area, Partidas said.
Brig. Gen. Inocencio Pasaporte, Army’s 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, however said they cannot say yet if the killing of Dautil was insurgency related, as their investigation is still ongoing.*
