BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – Camp Montelibano has ordered the forming of a special probe team to lead efforts in looking into and prosecuting the first heinous crime reported this month involving an official of the Department of Agrarian Reform who was gunned down on his way to work in the resort city of Sipalay four hours south of here yesterday, 8 July 2024.
Captain Jose Michael Muñez told DNX the Negros Occidental Provincial Police Office ordered the forming of the special investigation task group after Andre Maria Pajarillo, 57 was shot by two gunmen along the stretch of the Candoni-Sipalay Road in Sandia, a community in Mambaroto village.
Muñez told DNX their initial probe showed the killing was well planned as the shooters knew Pajarillo use to pass by the area.
“There could have been prior surveillance before the actual hit,” Muñez said of the killing that happened on a Monday, around 8am when government employees usually attend flag rsising ceremonies.
He also pointed to the use of superior firepower, two 9mm pistols, against the inarmed Pajarillo who was fatally hit in the head twice.
A doctor declared him dead at the hospital by the time he arrived.
Pajarillo was employed as a senior technologist of the Department of Agrarian Reform’s field office in Sipalay and was a former village chief and councilman of East village in Candoni town where he also lives.
Muñez said they are initially focusing on two possible angles: the killing was job-related or had something to do with the victim’s personal life.
The SITG was an operating procedure standardized in 2012 by then National Police Director, General Nicanor Bartolome, to speed up resolution of cases and ensure successful prosecution of heinous or sensational cases.
