Former US-based Boholano businessman Eduardo “Boy Haros” Enerio was gunned down right in front of his three-storey Honeybee Pension House across the Soledad Suites along J. Borja St., this city at around 9:20 last night.

Enerio, 62, died from five gunshot wounds in the body, though six empty shells of caliber 45 ammunitions were found in the crime scene. The bullets hit the victim on the head, shoulder, and feet.

City chief of police, Supt. George Vale, said solving the murder of one like Enerio requires crime investigators to scan through several cases that the victim had run into over the years—especially since 2009—including drug cases and murder.

In fact, the victim had actually served a jail term for one of the cases.

Vale called on eye witnesses to come out as he noticed people nearby the crime scene seemed to be all quiet and remained as onlookers.

In fact, the Tagbilaran City Police Station received the information from a concerned citizen who was present near Lite Shipping office, the establishment beside Enerio’s building that a man known to the neighborhood as “Boy Haros”—the nickname Enerio had been popular of.

Vale said two CCTV cameras have been mounted in front of Enerio’s building, but investigators still have to ask permission from the victim’s family to be able to access the monitor which is inside the victim’s room at Honey Bee Hotel.

2014 TROUBLE

On the night of January 3, 2014, Cebu-based Regional Special Operations Group (RSOG) led by Police Senior Insp. Ruel Burlat raided Enerio’s three-storey which resulted to his arrest arrest together with eight others believed to be part of his illegal swertres operations in the city.

Burlat then said that the arrest of the Enerio and eight alleged cohorts followed after a hot pursuit operation of a certain Rogelio Borces—also known as “Insik”—a resident of Remolador St., this city, a suspected swertres coordinator working for Enerio.

Police said Borces sought refuge at Enerio’s building past 8:30 p.m. on January 3, 2014 which resulted to the confiscation of several items inside one of the rooms at the ground floor.

Seized by the regional police team were Pachmayr 45 caliber pistol with seven live ammunition, Browning 9mm caliber pistol  with 10 live ammunitions, Black Widow 22 caliber magnum revolver with four live ammunition together with 30 pcs. of 45 caliber live ammunition.

Police said Enerio was caught in possession of a pistol when operatives entered a room where the nine arrested persons were also spending their time.

Police said Enerio is a swertres financial operator in the city. His reported coordinator Borces was placed under surveillance for two months prior to the raid.

Arrested with Enerio and Borces were Alain Petalcorin, at that time a jobless resident of Ilaud, Inabanga town; Rhoy Alinabon, resident of Mansasa District, this city; Bernardo Jaspe, habal-habal driver from Agape, Loboc; Rey Gequillo, a resident of Dampas District, this city; Geronimo Quinga, a resident of Totolan, Dauis; and Geraldo Quinga, a resident of Luyo, Dimiao.

Aside from the guns, suspected shabu placed inside three plastic packs were also seized by the operatives inside the same room.

The raiding team also confiscated tally sheets containing several number combinations, tip sheets dated January 3, 2014; several pieces of paper with number combinations, notebooks showing a record of remittances, and cash amounting to P3,425, calculators and staplers.

Enerio and the eight others were escorted by the operatives to Camp Sergio Osmeña in Cebu City for detention.

They were brought back to the city the following day for the filing of formal charges against them.

In the case of Enerio, he was charged for violation of R.A. 9287 (against illegal gambling), violation of R.A. 9165 on illegal drugs and R.A. 10591 on illegal possession of firearms.

However, the suspected shabu placed in three plastic packs, surprisingly turned out “not to contain any dangerous drug,” according to the result of the laboratory test conducted few hours after the substance had been confiscated inside the same room where the suspects were cornered by Cebu operatives during the raid.

The crime lab result surprised the then Tagbilaran chief of police, Supt. Jovito Atanacio, who was present during the confiscation of the three plastic packs.

2010 TROUBLE

In 2010, Enerio, who was then running for Provincial Board, operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Region 7 also arrested him for possession of illegal drugs.

During a raid on January 21 that year, also in the same three-storey commercial building, the PDEA team recovered about P50,000 worth of suspected shabu, a licensed 9mm Sig Sauer pistol and bullets inside Enerio’s room.

The raiding team, led by PDEA-7 Regional Director Roland Pedroso and Assistant Regional Director Yogi Felimon Ruiz recovered one pack and four medium-sized sachets containing crystalline substance suspected to be shabu.

The PDEA team immediately submitted the suspected illegal drugs to the crime laboratory of the Philippine National Police for examination.

Enerio was turned over to the provincial command after the city police refused to assume custody.

He was then brought to the community hospital for medical check-up and laboratory test to determine if he was also a drug user. He was later confined in the same hospital after his blood pressure started to shoot up.

Enerio accused that his first cousins, Loay Mayor Rosemarie Lim-Imboy and Lucio Lim Jr., also a businessman, were behind the raid to set him up and that all those recovered from his room were all “planted evidence”.

He said he already had an idea that anytime his place would be raided and that it was very stupid of him to get caught red-handed.

The bigger size of plastic sachet containing suspected shabu reportedly fell from one of the pants belonging to him when the raiding team searched the laundry basket, while the four medium size sachets were recovered from his aid’s room, known as “alias Bobby” in the next floor.

Alias Bobby was brought to the provincial police headquarters at Camp Dagohoy for interrogation.

The pistol was found on the bedside table. Other pieces of evidence gathered were 15 pieces of 1,000-peso bill, 10 pieces of 500-peso bill, a magazine with bullets, two pieces of foil, two disposable lighters, and some tissue paper.

The PDEA team, along with two lawyers, conducted the raid after obtaining a search warrant dated January 14, 2010 issued by RTC-Branch 58 Executive Judge Fernando Fuentes III, to find possible evidence for violations of Republic Act 9165.

Ruiz said they had been conducting surveillance on Enerio since last week of November 2009.

Enerio’s lawyer then, the late Alexander Lim, also came during the raid, and argued with the PDEA team as he noticed that the search warrant indicated no specific room to be searched, and no specific items they expect to find.

Enerio’s other lawyer then, Daryll Amante, Friday filed a day after the raid, a motion to quash the search warrant before RTC Branch 48.

Then PDEA Director Randy Pedroso, however, assured they had observed Enerio’s rights when they served the search warrant and their documents were complete.

For her part, Imboy belied Enerio’s allegations that she was behind the raid, saying she even had no knowledge about it since she was still in Manila then.

The mayor added that she could not do it to his first cousin.

Three days later, it surprised the PDEA to learn that Enerio’s drug case filed based on the raid became bailable as content of the sachets confirmed to be shabu by crime laboratory results only reached 3.9 grams.

In the conservative estimate of then PDEA-7 assistant director Yogi Felimon Ruiz, the volume of shabu confiscated during the raid could reach more than five grams that could have made the case non-bailable.

Enerio had denied being a drug user with his age, nor being a drug pusher with his “financial condition” and that the sachets of shabu were all planted by the raiding team.

The following week, Enerio was scheduled to appear in court for another case filed against him- -murder.

Mayor Imboy and husband, Brigido Imboy, had earlier issued separate affidavits that were used by the prosecution against Enerio in the murder case.

On March 29, Judge Suceso Arcamo of RTC Branch 47 issued an order for the issuance of a warrant of arrest and the cancellation of the bail against Enerio.

The warrant stemmed from the information filed by the City Prosecutor’s Office for the complaint of murder filed against accused Enerio for the shooting to death of a certain Jack Lord Decasa of Loay on the dawn of November 9, 2009 in the same building along Borja St.

Enerio claimed that it was self defense thus the police indicated the latter for homicide only and the accused was released after posting a bail.

However, after wrapping up the investigation, the task force believed that murder was committed thus the task force filed a complaint of murder before the City Prosecutor’s Office which also found probable cause that murder was committed.

Another warrant was just recently issued against the accused by Judge Sisinio C. Virtudazo of Branch 1 of the Multiple Trial Courts in Cities in connection with the charge of grave slander by deed filed by a lady guard Estrellita Navarro of Alniño Security Agency.

Navarro’s complaint narrated that accused Enerio slapped and spat on her face after she politely asked him to park properly his Nissan Frontier pick-up truck while she was on duty at Unitop.

The pick-up truck bears the plate “Y LAMI”.

Not contented, Enerio allegedly took her company-issued handheld radio and smashed it on the concrete pavement and destroyed the equipment completely.

The lady guard was three months pregnant when the incident happened and the trauma caused her bleeding and stomach pains that prevented her to report the following day.

AN EARLIER CASE

Enerio had other strings of cases in his list. In 2008, he was convicted by another city court, Branch 2 of the MTCC for slight physical injuries after he slapped in the face, Traffic Enforcer Joel Mula of the City Traffic Management Office when the latter issued him a citation ticket for illegally parking his Nissan Frontier pick-up truck in front of BQ Mall of Gallares St., Tagbilaran City .

A fellow traffic enforcer who witnessed Enerio slapping Mula said that the latter was only doing his duty at that time.

Another case that Enerio is facing is violation of the Dangerous Drugs Act that PDEA Region 7 filed against him.