“I am not a fugitive. I am not hiding”.

Businessman Kenneth Tirthdas yesterday made the clarification as he expressed his dismay over reports picturing him as a criminal.

Tirthdas, a suspect in the fatal shooting of RPA-ABB member Edgar Nicor who allegedly gunned down his brother-in-law, Phibun Pura, said he is staying in a safehouse to protect himself and members of his family.

“It is a normal reaction of somebody who has the instinct to survive,” Tirthdas said in an interview with Bombo Radyo.

Tirthdas added that he already has a battery of lawyers to defend him in court. “I am not afraid of the charges to be filed against me,” Tirthdas said, but added that he fears for his life.

“Before you condemn anybody, in fairness, let the law takes its course,” he also said.

RPA-ABB spokesperson Victorino Sumulong earlier said they will not run after Tirthdas for the death of Nicor, whose wife, is a cousin of Carapali Lualhati, national commander of the breakaway communist rebel faction.

The investigation into the killing of Pura, an arbiter of the National Labor Relations Commission in Negros Occidental, took a new twist after Nicor tested negative for gunpowder nitrates, after a paraffin test conducted on him by the PNP Crime Laboratory.

Supt. Joseph Thomas Martir, Talisay police chief, however, said the result of the paraffin test is not conclusive, and the absence of gunpowder nitrates on the hands of Nicor, may have been influenced by wind directions, or he must have been wearing a jacket, or was wet, when the crime was committed.

A .45 caliber pistol with three magazines containing bullets were recovered from Nicor, while seven empty shells were found at the crime scene, Martir said.*GPB

back to top