Still no leads in Marton Cui murder: NBI

After more than a year and eight months, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is still facing a blank wall in its investigation on the murder of Negros Occidental Provincial Government consultant Mariano Antonio “Marton” Cui.

Atty. Renoir Baldovino, agent-in-charge of NBI Bacolod, said Tuesday that the courts in San Carlos City and in Bacolod City did not grant their petition for a cyber warrant.

“Our efforts were frustrated in our investigation. If our petition was granted we could have secured the gadget, we could have followed a lead,” Baldovino said.

He, however, refused to reveal what the conversation was all about.

Baldovino said that the murder of Cui “was well-planned and well-funded.”

We got information that there was “an exchange of calls with one of the participants at a time when they were planning the shooting,” he said, adding that, “we need the cyber warrant to open the gadget for our laboratory examination by our technical experts in Manila.”

Baldovino said their petition was denied by the courts “for one reason or the other.”

He said he lauded the cooperation of the Cui family.

Unfortunately, our investigation stopped despite receiving many information, although “most are unverified and dubious”, he added.

Earlier, the provincial government raised the reward money for the arrest of the perpetrators to P2 million.
In a notice, the provincial go ernment said, “any information that would lead to the capture of person, or individuals, behind his death” may be relayed to the NBI-Bacolod District Office.

The reward money was increased more than a year after Governor Bong Lacson announced on Nov. 11, 2021 the reward of P1.5 million for anyone who can give vital information regarding the suspects.

Initially, the bounty was set at P500,000 in October 2021.

Considered a political figure in the province’s 1st district, Cui, 62, was gunned down evening of April 12, 2021, outside his office in his hometown in San Carlos.

Police investigation showed that Cui was hit by long-range shots while he was about to board his vehicle outside his office at Emerald Arcade on F.C. Ledesma Avenue, Barangay Palampas.

Considered by Lacson as “a very good friend”, the late Capitol consultant was once the chief of staff of former 1st District Congressman Julio Ledesma IV as well as an executive assistant for political affairs of incumbent Rep. Gerardo Valmayor Jr.* (EYA)