ILOILO City – Police are looking into love triangle as possible motive in the death of a businessman who was riddled with bullets at the Iloilo Terminal Market on July 13. And they find it difficult to build a case against the killers.
Witnesses who have been providing them information refuse to testify, said Superintendent Jonathan Pablito, chief of Police Station 1.
Investigators have four “persons of interest” in the death of Ranny Bibangco.
From what they have so far gathered, investigators find “love triangle” as the “most compelling” motive, Pablito said.
According to witnesses, two of the suspects – including the gunman – rode in tandem in a motorcycle while the other two served as lookouts, Pablito said.
Bibangco, a resident of Barangay Dos, Tigbauan, Iloilo, was a supplier of quail eggs to market vendors in three big public markets in the city.
The 33-year-old was shot to death at around 6 a.m. that Friday the 13th while talking to a friend at a fruit stand on Rizal Street, Barangay Rizal Palapala, City Proper.
Closed-circuit television camera images show the gunman and his motorcycle-driving accomplice fled toward Barangay Sinikway, Lapuz district, Pablito said.
But the information and evidence the investigators currently have are circumstantial at best, he said.
“Our problem right now is they (witnesses) are not willing to testify,” said the police official.
Pablito said they have reached out to at least four witnesses.
The witnesses “fear that whoever was behind the killing could harm them,” the officer said.
Investigators are now working to enhance the security camera images.
“We will not stop persuading them (witnesses) to help us,” Pablito said.
According to Pablito, investigators have gathered that Bibangco had an affair with a woman married to a seafarer.
Pablito previously said they were also looking into information that Bibangco was a drug personality on the watch list of the Iloilo Police Provincial Office and that a former business partner was threatening him.
Police continue to delve deeper. “We have not yet made any conclusion with regard to the motive,” Pablito clarified. “But love triangle is the most compelling [among those we are exploring].”
Bibangco’s father Romari said his son had no known enemies.
“After delivering quail eggs to our clients early morning each day, he would go home and we would have breakfast together,” the father had said after learning about his son’s death.
Pablito has described Bibangco as a big supplier of quail eggs with clients at the Iloilo Terminal Market and the Jaro and La Paz public markets, earning as high as P6,000 in a day.
“We are still open to anyone willing to give us information and sign a testimony to help us pursue charges,” said Pablito./PN
