By Lynde Salgados
Correspondent
ALTHOUGH there are no suspects yet, authorities are now looking into the business-related matters as the heaviest among the four angles being eyed in the broad daylight murder of 1st District Rep. Rolando ‘Klarex’ Uy’s eldest son, Roland Sherwin on Thursday, at past 1 pm.
“That there were no identification and arrest made yet it doesn’t mean that we’re still facing a blank wall on this case. Ang business side sa ilang quarry didtong dapita maoy atong gitutokan karon,” said P/Col. Surki Sereñas of the Cagayan de Oro City Police (Cocpo) in yesterday’s interview over Magnum Radyo.
Sereñas, who just returned back in the city from his last assignment in Bukidnon, had momentarily ruled out drugs and politics in the treacherous attack that also claimed the life of the Uys’ 70-year-old backhoe caretaker Samuel Tabalan in the outskirts of Zone 1, Barangay Pagatpat, Cagayan de Oro City.
Sereñas, however, mentioned “extortion” and possibly unsettled “revolutionary tax” by the leftist group among the possible angles since the quarry business is very profitable.
Probers said the victims were literally unmindful of what will happen as the two unidentified two men in a motorcycle had just casually arrived in the Uys’ family-owned quarry site, posing as customers of sand and gravel before shooting them to death with the use of “two kinds” of 45 caliber pistols.
Soco personnel Benedict Acosta III said that the perpetrators had made it sure that Klarex’s 45-year-old son Tawee ― as he was known in the community ― would not survive by inflicting him with six gunshot wounds to the belly, chest, and to his face.
The helper also bore fatal bullet wounds in the forehead.
“Wala ko milihok sa kasilyas nga akong gisudlan niadtong tungora kay buto-buto naman dayon human akong nadunggan nga adunay nangutana kon tagpila ang load sa sand and gravel,” said Tawee’s personal driver Rubie Nahial Alayuay, who luckily cheated death, and revealed he heard a motorcycle speeding off after the multiple gunbursts.
Major Jerson Estanilla, City Police Station 7 commander, in a separate interview over the same radio station, said that even Tawee’s family and relatives were clueless of the gruesome killing since the incumbent barangay kagawad of Carmen had no known enemies.
“Wala siya’y armas o kaha bodyguard normal nga ga-adto siya mata’g adlaw sa ilang quarry site from Monday to Saturday,” Estanilla said.
Tawee’s father, Rep. Rolando Uy is the leading mayoral bet in Cagayan de Oro in the May 2022 elections.
His younger brother Joaquin Raineir ‘Kikang’ Uy, the incumbent city vice mayor, is eyeing the congressional seat in the city’s first district.
“I’ve known Tawee since he became SK chair in Barangay Carmen kay silingan ra pud ‘mi. Walay libog ug pakisama kaayo nga amigo. Dako kaayong kasubo kining nahitabo karon,” Tawee’s childhood buddy Bernardo Taguic told Gold Star Daily.
“Strikto pero sinsero. Mapalanggaon ug lambing kaayo si kuya Tawee,” recalled his maternal relative Rue Rose Daba.
“Wala nay mag komedya kon moadto ko’g Carmen,” shared former Barangay Bonbon chairwoman Jackylou Biongcog-Merto.
Journalist Joey Nacalaban, who is a friend to the Uys, informed that Tawee’s wake will be held at Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes after the conduct of an autopsy on his body.
