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SoCot employee gunned down in Koronadal City

By Allen Estabillo

November 6, 2019, 4:31 pm

<p>Lt. Col. Joefel Siason, Koronadal City police chief. <em>(File photo courtesy of the Koronadal City police station)</em></p>

Lt. Col. Joefel Siason, Koronadal City police chief. (File photo courtesy of the Koronadal City police station)

GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Unidentified gunmen shot dead an employee of the provincial government of South Cotabato at a traffic stop in a road junction in Koronadal City Wednesday morning.

Lt. Col Joefel Siason, chief of the Koronadal City police station, said victim Robert Corneta was on his way to work at the provincial capitol aboard a white Kia sedan when he was waylaid by two motorcycle-riding suspects around 6:45 a.m.

Siason said Corneta had just stopped at a red traffic signal in the corner of General Santos Drive and Arellano Street when attacked.

Citing accounts from several witnesses, he said two suspects aboard a motorcycle approached the driver’s side of the vehicle and opened fire at the victim.

Siason said Corneta died on-the-spot due to multiple gunshot wounds on the head and body from a .45-caliber handgun.

The suspects, wearing black masks, fled from the scene after the shooting, he said.

Corneta, in his 40s, was a former jail guard of the South Cotabato Rehabilitation and Detention Center or provincial jail but was transferred last July to the Provincial Security Unit at the provincial capitol compound.

Siason said they are currently looking into several possible motives, among them personal grudges and work-related circumstances.

“We’re currently doing a back tracking of the background and activities of the victim,” he said in a radio interview.

Based on the manner of the attack, he said the suspects appear to be part of an organized group and carefully planned Corneta’s murder.

Siason said they will submit the recovered slugs to the regional crime laboratory for cross-matching to determine whether the incident was connected to previous killings and other gun attacks in the area.

He said they will review the footage of security cameras installed near the scene to help identify the suspects. (PNA)

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