Digicast Negros

‘FTMON bullets case not closed, we’ll not stop until culprits found’

The bullets foundat the FTMON*

The case is not closed, the discovery of two bullets at the Food Terminal Market of Occidental Negros (FTMON) in Bacolod City may have been intended to scare an employee of the Provincial Human Resource Management Office, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said Friday, July 14.

Diaz said he does not believe the bullets found at the FTMON were intended as a threat to the upper management of the provincial government, but were for an HR employee the perpetrators suspect of having caused the non-renewal of the contracts of some watchmen at the facility.

He also said the person who later claimed ownership of the bullets was a job order worker of the provincial government assigned to the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist. His alleged link to the intelligence community is being investigated, Diaz said.

Diaz said he will recommend the termination of the JO worker.

“The case is not closed, the police are investigating the case and we will not stop until the culprits behind this are identified”, he added.

”We don’t take these things lightly, but again we think it’s isolated and directed at that person whom they feel is responsible for the non-renewal of their contracts,” Diaz said.

“We are looking at the extent of the sabotage or the conspiracy against the HR personnel,” Diaz said.

Renelo Lastierre, head of the Capitol’s Security and Safety Division (SSD), said on Wednesday that he considered the case closed after a person connected to a military intelligence unit in Negros Occidental claimed he accidentally dropped the bullets at the FTMON.

Three days after the discovery of the two 9mm bullets at the FTMON stairs, Lastierre said he was stripped of his supervision of the Capitol’s blue guards, and the vehicle and gun assigned to him were recalled.

The motorcycles of some watchmen were also recalled and the contracts of four were not renewed, he added.

The HR employee on July 4 was grabbed by the arm by a man she did not know who showed her the bullets at the FTMON stairs, Diaz said.

Diaz said the SSD watchmen did not preserve the evidence following the discovery of the bullets, which cannot be taken lightly.

There were also a lot of alibis from the SSD when requests to view the CCTV footage in the area was made, he said. The person in charge of the CCTV is a relative of the head of security, he said.

“We feel it’s related to the non-renewal of some of the watchmen and those disgruntled are responsible but we want evidence to be established against whoever is responsible for this,” Diaz said.

He does not believe that the bullets were accidentally left in the area and that the case is closed as claimed by Lastierre, Diaz added.

Diaz said it is not the HR employee who is responsible for the relief of the watchmen, it is a committee that decides such matters.

He said a lot of complaints regarding actuations of the watchmen have been reaching his office.

On allegations that some are engaged in business at the FTMON and at the Mambukal Resort, Diaz said that would have to be investigated.*

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