CATANDUANES Gov. Joseph Cua and other suspects were charged with murder before the Department of Justice in the killing of journalist Larry Que.
Que exposed the involvement of the governor, some local officials and personalities in the worsening illegal-drugs trade in the province of Catanduanes.
The National Press Club accompanied Que’s common-law wife Edralyn Pangilinan last Tuesday, May 2, in the filing of the murder case against Cua, his aide Prince Lim Subion, Vincent Masagca Tacorda and other “John Does”.
Tacorda, a former police officer in Catanduanes, was said to have admitted he was inatructed to kill Que under the guise of “Operation Tokhang” by Cua through Cua’s right-hand man Lim Subion. Tacorda resigned from the Philippine National Police (PNP) several days ago.
In November 2016 the PNP raided a “mega” shabu laboratory, the biggest discovered in the country, so far, in Barangay Palta, Virac, Catanduanes. The House of Representatives then began a Congressional investigation and hearings on the “mega shabu lab” in February.
Also, earlier this year, Cua, Virac Mayor Samuel Laynes and Hilario Sarmiento, barangay captain of Palta, Virac, were charged before the Office of the Ombudsman for graft, grave misconduct and other charges.
Pangilinan lodged the complaint in the Office of the Ombudsman.
Que was shot in the head by a gunman in December last year as he was about to enter the building where his insurance business was located. He died later in the hospital. The killing happened just two weeks after he launched his newspaper Catanduanes News Now and after his drug-related expose against the governor was published in the newspaper.
Pangilinan said Que received death threats from Lim Subion prior to Que’s murder, the first media-related killing under the Duterte administration.