CEBU CITY, Philippines — A former police officer was killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen on Tuesday, May 21, near the SM City Cebu mall.

Delfin Bontuyan, formerly of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, was shot several times by a gunman aboard a motorbike around 5 pm, just across the Mabolo Police Station.

The bullets pierced through a taxi cab that was next to Bontuyan’s motorcycle. The taxi driver was unharmed.

Outgoing Mayor Tomas Osmeña said on Tuesday, Bontuyan was approached by a police officer who asked him what his relationship was to Christine Bontuyan.

“He is the father of the girl who made this post about being harrassed by both Barandog’s men and Garma herself was murdered today,” Osmeña said. The girl mentioned in Osmeña’s Facebook post was Christine. “Barandog” referred to Police Major Chuck Barandog, chief of the City Mobile Force Company; while “Garma” was Colonel Royena Garma, director of the Cebu City Police Office.

Osmeña arrived on the scene shortly after the killing and said he would help protect Bontuyan’s family.

Christine is the Sangguniang Kabataan President of Barangay Talamban. Bontuyan, who is a member of Osmeña’s local BOPK party, posted on Facebook about an encounter with men holding body bags near the party’s voters’ assistance desk in Barangay Lahug on Election Day.

“This happened hours after Col. Garma ‘held for inquiry’ some BOPK supporters in the same area. She was confronted by a BOPK lawyer and left thereafter,” Bontuyan said in her FB post.

Delfin Bontuyan used to work in Cebu before he was assigned to the Cordillera Region in 2016, and then more recently to Jolo, Sulu.

He was leaving after attending a court hearing in the North Reclamation Area when he was ambushed.

According to a report in Cebu Daily News, police are pursuing 4 suspects in connection with the murder, but did not elaborate on the motive and the identities of the suspects.

Bontuyan’s killing was the third in Cebu City in the span of 24 hours.

On Monday evening, May 20, Gerald Maramara Villamor, 20, was shot and killed outside of a McDonald’s on Colon St in downtown Cebu City.

Police are eyeing a personal grudge as the motive in the killing of Villamor.

Jay Bulaong Caruna, 28, was shot a few hours later nearby on V. Gullas Street in Barangay Santo Niño. – Rappler.com