Suspect in Black Saturday slay surrenders

By Jennifer P. Rendon

The suspect who allegedly killed a 19-year-old boy in a Black Saturday shooting in Jaro, Iloilo City has surrendered to authorities.

Orlando Travilla, Jr., 39, a resident of Barangay Malag-it, Calinog, yielded late last week through Mayor Vicente “Jun-Jun” Jaen II.

Travilla has a standing arrest warrant for murder for the killing of Karl Dominic Labuson.

Labuson was gunned by a robber he tried to chase from Leganes town to Jaro district on April 3, 2021.

The murder case was filed July 2 with the Iloilo City Prosecutors’ Office.

Captain Eduardo Siacon, Jaro police chief, said Travilla initially reached out to Lieutenant Colonel Remie Alavaren, chief of the Iloilo Police Provincial Office-Provincial Investigation and Detection Unit.

Alavaren subsequently referred him to Major Dadje Delima, Calinog police chief.

Travilla then intimated his plan of turning himself in to Jaen.

Siacon said they picked up the suspect from Jaen’s custody.

Travilla surrendered after police operatives hounded several areas where he was spotted.

Siacon said they conducted operations in the towns of Oton, San Enrique, and Calinog.

The latest was in Calinog where Travilla reportedly hid in a neighbor’s house,

After that incident, he contacted the police that he would voluntarily surrender, Siacon said.

Travilla denied, though, that he was the person who shot Labuson dead, claiming he did not know or saw Labuson.

Travilla said he decided to surrender after learning of the arrest warrant against him. He already talked to Labuson’s father, Leganes Sangguniang Bayan member Larry Labuson, while in jail.

The Labuson family hired a private lawyer to file the case against the suspect.

Siacon said they provided the evidence they have gathered and the statement of the witnesses.

One witness positively identified Travilla who was wearing a half face crash helmet when the incident happened.

Earlier, the police said they had two “persons of interest” behind the shooting of a teenage boy who was killed after chasing a robber.

Aside from the accused, police had previously eyed another person from Lapuz district, Iloilo City.

It can be noted that the gunman was wearing a nutshell helmet and mask when he staged the botched robbery in Leganes.

The female victim in the botched robbery pointed to the Iloilo province-based person of interest as the possible suspect.

She based her assessment on the eyes, the color of the suspect’s facial skin, and his built.

Based on CCTV footages, the assailant was driving a black Honda Click 150i motorcycle with no license plate.

The victim’s family has earlier offered a P100,000 monetary reward for those who could provide information that would lead to the identification and possible arrest of the gunman who shot Labuson evening of Black Saturday.

The victim, a resident of Barangay Carimayor, Leganes, Iloilo, was killed by the robber he was trying to chase near the entrance of Metropolis Subdivision in Barangay Tagbac, Jaro, around 7:30 p.m. of April 3.

He succumbed to a gunshot wound on the right temple and chest.

The victim was a college student taking up a Maritime course.

Labuson and his younger sister went for a ride on board his motorcycle in the town proper of Leganes. He left her sister at a convenience store while he went to get gas at a nearby gasoline station.

But before he could even tank up, he heard a shout from a woman at the nearby Jardeleza Arcade.

The man appeared to be trying to rob a woman and immediately sped off.

Labuson allegedly left the area and chased after the suspect.

When they reached the Metropolis area, the suspect slowed down after apparently seeing a police mobile patrol several meters away.

Policemen apparently responded to a vehicular incident in the area.

It was at that juncture that Labuson shouted, “Dulog, dulog” (Stop, stop).

“The tricycle drivers plying the area thought that it was a case of road rage,” Siacon said.

True enough, the suspect stopped only to pull his gun and shot him twice.

He was pronounced dead on arrival at the nearby Metro Iloilo Hospital and Medical Center.