DRIVE FOR ‘CLEAN GOVT.’ CLAIMS ANOTHER VICTIM
Govt.’s ‘War Vs. Corruption’ under fire—literally
THE anti-corruption campaign of the Duterte administration is literally under fire with another government executive ready to reveal the alleged irregularities at the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) being murdered in broad daylight in Mandaluyong City, National Capital Region.
Shot dead last Thursday, July 30, 2020, by a lone gunman on board a motorcycle was PCSO Board Secretary Wesley Barayuga.
Barayuga was on board a white ‘Mitsubishi Estrada’ (SKR-923) which got stuck in traffic along Calbayog Street, Bgy. Highway Hills.
CCTV footages of the incident showed the gunman, wearing a helmet, casually sidled up to Barayuga’s vehicle from the right side before drawing a .45 caliber pistol and pumping four shots.
Barayuga, who was seated at the back, was dead on the spot from two bullet wounds in the head and armpit while his driver, identified as Jun Gunao, has been brought to the hospital for emergency medical treatment, the police said.
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) acting director, Atty. Eric Distor, had revealed that Barayuga was one of their main informants inside the PCSO on previous and ongoing corruption at the state charity agency now being headed by former police colonel, Royina Garma.
Distor added he has dispatched NBI agents to “seal off” the office of Barayuga to “secure documents” related to their ongoing probe.
Distor said Barayuga not only previously provided the NBI with documents but was also willing to “authenticate” and “testify” on them.
A lawyer and “mistah” of Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) secretary Eduardo M. Año and National Irrigation Administration (NIA) administrator, Ricardo Visaya at the Philippine Military Academy’s “Matikas Class” of 1983, Barayuga joined the PCSO on the invitation of its board chairman, Arsenio Pinili, himself a retired police general.
His murder came just three days after another government official, Dr. Roland L. Cortez, Medical Chief, National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) and his driver, Ernesto dela Cruz, were found dead from bullet wounds along Bgy. Culiat, Tandang Sora, Quezon City.
A witness said one of two suspects on board a motorcycle casually walked to Cortez’s car, knocked on the window and when the door was opened, opened fire repeatedly.
The victims were killed just hours before Pres. Duterte was to deliver his ‘State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Congress that day, July 27, 2020.
It was rumored that Cortez was also preparing documents about shenanigans at the NCMH, which is under the Department of Health.
Prior to these incidents, the Chief Inquest Prosecutor of Manila, Atty. Jovencio Aleman Senados, was similarly killed in broad daylight in Manila last July 7, 2020.
Sources said his murder was related to corruption in his office.
