Anti-drug cop’s killers switched plates – probers

The assailants who killed a policeman and wounded his female companion at a motel in Pasig City on Thursday used a vehicle with a different license plate, an official said yesterday.

Pasig police chief Senior Superintendent Orlando Yebra said the Toyota Revo used by the suspects bore a license plate, XAY-567, registered to a Nissan Cefiro.

Probers were able to trace the owner of the vehicle in Laguna who told them he sold the car several years ago, Yebra said.

“We are investigating how the license plate ended on the other vehicle,” he said over the phone.

Two assailants, armed with an Armalite rifle and a shotgun, approached the Toyota Fortuner of Senior Police Officer 2 Ernesto Sanchez and shot him and his companion, Josebel Polo.

Yebra said Sanchez’s accomplishments in an anti-drug operations could be the reason for his murder. Sanchez survived an attempt on his life in 2014.

“He has been an antidrug operative for 20 years,” he said.

Probers have already interviewed Sanchez’s widow, also a police officer, who told them they have no marital problems.

Yebra said they have yet to talk to Polo, who is still recuperating in an undisclosed hospital. Probers want to know why she and Sanchez were together at the time of the shooting.