'Triggerman' in broadcaster's slay yields
A suspect in the 2001 murder of Aklan broadcaster Rolando Ureta yesterday surrendered to the police, three weeks after another suspect was arrested.
Jessie Ticar announced that he was surrendering to the police while being interviewed on air around 2:30 p.m. over radio station dyKR of Radio Mindanao Network where Ureta was program director before he was gunned down in January 3, 2001.
Ticar asked policemen from the Kalibo police station to arrest him at the office of his lawyer Joann Ibutnande, according to Senior Supt. Benigno Durana Jr., Aklan provincial police director.
He was then presented to the Kalibo Regional Trial Court Branch 1 where he is accused of murder.
"God is good. Thank you for all those who have helped in Roland's case," Ureta's widow Emely said in a text message welcoming Ticar's surrender.
Durana said Ticar was convinced to turn himself in and defend himself in court because today is the arraignment of his co-suspect Amador Raz.
Raz was arrested on Nov. 26 in Numancia town based on a warrant issued on Nov. 21 by Judge Marietta Homena-Valencia, presiding judge of the Kalibo RTC Branch 1.
A lone witness, Gerson Sonio, has tagged Ticar and as the one who shot dead Ureta along the national highway in Barangay Bagtu, Lezo town, Aklan, around 7 km west of the capital town of Kalibo.
The suspects had denied involvement in the killing and have questioned the credibility of the witness.
Ureta was driving a motorcycle on his way to his parents' house when two suspects on a motorcycle drove alongside the broadcaster and shot him. Ureta fell on a ditch and managed to reach a house alongside the national highway before he was finished off by the suspects.
The victim hosted the nightly program "Agong Nightwatch." He was investigating the proliferation of illegal gambling and illegal drugs in the province when he was killed.