The claim that a person on board a motorcycle killed the general manager of the Northern Negros Electric Cooperative (NONECO) in Bacolod City on December 21 can be ruled out, Lt. Jonito Pastrana, Police Station 2 officer-in-charge, said on Tuesday, December 27.
He believes that Danny Pondevilla, 47, who was found dead in the driver’s seat of his Honda CRV at 16th-Lacson Street, Bacolod, was most likely killed by someone inside the vehicle, Pastrana said.
“The theory in the ongoing investigation is clearer now,” Pastrana said.
The special investigation task force created to investigate Pondevilla’s killing convened Tuesday and is pursuing the angle that the motive of the killing was personal and work related, he added.
“We can rule out that a riding in tandem gunman was involved based on the evidence presented,” he said.
They are investigating three persons of interest in the case, Pastrana said.
The executive secretary of Pondevilla who was onboard his vehicle when he was killed and a NOCECO union official were tagged among the persons of interest.
Their paraffin tests both had negative results but they remain persons of interest, Pastrana said.
The executive secretary had earlier told the police that a person on board a motorcycle killed Pondevilla when he stopped his vehicle to vomit, Pastrana said.
Pondevilla and the executive secretary had just left L’Fisher Hotel where they attended the NOCECO Christmas party.
The executive secretary told the police Pondevilla had drank a lot of liquor and had stopped to throw up three times.*