Rewards for info on assailants of  slain provincial consultant eyed

By Dolly Yasa

 

BACOLOD City – The provincial government of Negros Occidental is eyeing a reward to anyone who can provide information that will help solve the killing of provincial consultant Mariano Antonio “Marton” Cui.

But Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said he has to check first the legality of giving rewards.

“If I see that, indeed, it will help, or if the National Bureau of Investigation will say that it will help, then we might consider that,” Lacson said.

Both the NBI and the Special Investigation Task Group created by the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office are still facing a blank wall on Cui’s case.

Cui was also the chief of staff of former Negros Occidental Rep. Julio Ledesma IV.

Earlier, NBI-Bacolod District Office chief Renoir Baldovino said that the killing of Cui was well-funded.

President Rodrigo Duterte has also ordered the NBI to conduct an in-depth probe on the assassination of Cui.

“The President strongly condemns the killing of Mariano Antonio Cui III, consultant for hospital operations of Negros Occidental and former chief-of-staff of Congressman Jules Ledesma,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a Palace press briefing recently.

Cui was gunned down in his hometown of San Carlos City on April 12 by suspected sniper fire and was declared dead on arrival at a hospital due to two gunshot wounds.