A policeman who was assigned in Toboso, Negros Occidental, was gunned down in the mountainous area of Barangay Patun-an in Calatrava Saturday night, February 27.
Killed was Police Staff Sgt. John Daniel Gotera, 37, of the Toboso Police Station, and a resident of Barangay Buluangan, San Carlos City.
The police officer was walking along the barangay road when he was waylaid by an unidentified suspect who shot him twice in the head, a police report said.
The victim was rushed to the San Carlos City Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Recovered from the crime scene was one fired cartridge of a .45 caliber pistol.
The Calatrava police have yet to establish the motive of the killing.
Capt. Kenneth Paul Magan, Toboso police chief, said they are also conducting their own investigation into the killing.
They are determining whether the killing was work-related or if the victim was a target of the Special Partisan Unit (SPARU) assassins of the communist rebels, he said.
“We’re coordinating with our counterparts in the Philippine Army to monitor the movement of the SPARU,” Magan said.
Magan said the victim had been assigned in Toboso since 2019. He was part of the Investigation Section, whose cases include gambling and the town’s wanted persons.
Gotera was also previously assigned in Calatrava and Moises Padilla.
Magan said that Gotera was in Calatrava on the day he was killed to follow up leads on the wanted persons on their list.
“He was monitoring the wanted persons who have warrants of arrest in our station,” Magan said, adding that the victim had also monitored neighboring localities for sightings of the wanted men.*