Lamitan’s Mayor Furigay asks for full-blown probe; offers security for Yumol’s ma

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews / 31 July 2022) — Lamitan City Roderick Furigay is asking the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) and higher authorities to conduct a full blown investigation on the killing of his wife, Rosita Uy-Furigay, who served as mayor from 2013 to 2022. 

“I am requesting for a full blown investigation from the police and higher authorities,” Mayor Furigay told reporters Sunday morning following the arrival at Lamitan seaport of the casket bearing the remains of his wife. 

^{Residents of Lamitan City demand justice as they wait for the convoy carrying the casket of former mayor Rosita Furigay to pass their way on Sunday, 31 July 2022. The former mayor was killed at the Ateneo de Manila University campus on 24 July 2022. Photo from the FB page of the City Government of Lamitan}

The former mayor was killed at Gate 3 of the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City on Sunday afternoon, July 24, about an hour before the supposed Law School graduation of their daughter Hannah.  The graduation was cancelled.

The QCPD nabbed Dr. Chao Tiao Yumol who was identified by witnesses as the man who shot the former mayor, her aide and a university security guard.

Hannah is still recovering in a hospital.

On July 29, Yumol’s father Rolando, a retired policeman, was shot dead by men riding in tandem aboard a motorcycle, outside his residence in Lamitan. No one has identified the shooter or his driver. Yumol’s mother Muykim has told GMA 7 that she feared for her life.

Mayor Furigay on Sunday told reporters he would provide her with police security, stressing, “Naniniwala tayo sa hustisya, naniniwala tayo sa batas (We believe in justice, we believe in the law).”

^{Former Zamboanga City Mayor Beng Climaco (center, in black), prays before the casket bearing the remains of former Lamitan City Mayor Rose Furigay in Zamboanga City on Sunday, 31 July 2022. Mayor Roderick Furigay (beside Climaco) arrived in Zamboanga City with his wife’s casket, en route to Lamitan City. Photo from the FB page of the City Government of Lamitan}

Lawyer Quirino Esguerra, who had just arrived from Lamitan City, told MindaNews in Zamboanga City that there were questions on how Yumol was able to get inside the ADMU campus, who his contacts were, why his cellular phone was missing when earlier on, a witness had stated that Yumol was carrying a cellphone.

Esguerra further shared that the cybercrime charges by the Furigays against Yumol are still pending.  

“The problem with them is they don’t like to attend the proceedings. They wanted that their schedule will be followed. Their (Yumols’) lawyers in Manila are insisting on their own schedule. May schedule ang court. Pinagbigyan na sila (The Court has its schedule. They were granted that).  They were given the schedule that they asked for yet when the hearing came, they were not present,” Esguerra said.

Dr. Yumol was actively assailing via social media, the leadership of the former mayor and the incumbent, then the vice-mayor, stating in his posts as well as in his recorded videos that the Furigays were, and are, “corrupt” and “behind the drug (proliferation) problem in Lamitan City,” allegations the Furigays denied. 

Esguerra also told MindaNews that “the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency had cleared the Furigay couple of alleged involvement in illegal drugs.  (Frencie L. Carreon, MindaNews)