Cagayan de Oro City – An estimated 2,000 people, together with family, relatives and friends, gathered here to pay their last respect to the slain University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP) president Dr. Ricardo Rotoras as he was laid to rest Friday noon.
Rotoras, who served for four terms as the USTP president, was gunned down on December 2, at 1:00 in the morning by two gunmen outside his house on Cypress Street, Golden Glow North, Upper Carmen district.
The sudden demise of the much-revered state university president sparked outrage, not only in Cagayan de Oro City but also across various sectors as well as state universities and academes nationwide. Several groups, academic institutions and organizations as well as government agencies condemned the unfortunate incident.
The reward for arresting Rotoras’ killers was raised to PhP2 million, with another 500 thousands underway from the city council. An initial P1-million reward was announced by City Mayor Oscar Moreno a few hours after the killing, followed by another P1 million offered by local chapters of the Free and Accepted Masons of the Philippines.
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) regional director Sally Hans Barbaso expressed optimism that the reward money would help in the investigation, “as people will be more willing, we hope, to help unravel the identity of the shooters and mastermind of the crime.”
Both the NBI and the Police Region 10 Office stated that they believed the assassination was well-planned and executed professionally, aside from having adequate financial support from who ever mastermind killing.
The USTP community paid their last respects and wore white shirts printed with the hashtag (#) Justice for Dr. Ricardo Rotoras.
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY ERWIN MASCARIÑAS, News5 | InterAksyon
