MORE than a year has passed since radio broadcaster Reynante “Rey” Cortes was gunned down in broad daylight but police investigating his murder have yet to identify his killer.Cortes was gunned down by an unidentified assailant outside the station of radio DyRB in Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City on July 22, 2021 just after airing an episode of his radio commentary program.Due to lack of evidence, local police officials in Cebu City admitted that they decided to turn over all of the Cortes case files to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Central Visayas (CIDG 7).Lt. Col. Wilbert Parilla, deputy police director for administration of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said they decided to turn over their case files to CIDG 7 as it was a policy of the Philippine National Police to turn over unsolved cases to the CIDG if their investigations are not concluded after six months.Though they were able to pinpoint possible persons of interest in the case, Parilla lamented that they had insufficient evidence to prove that they were involved in Cortes’ murder.Parilla further lamented that the lack of sufficient evidence prevented them from pursuing a case against those persons of interest. A person of interest is a person believed to be possibly involved in a crime but has not been charged or arrested (Merriam-Webster).SunStar Cebu tried to get CIDG 7’s side on the matter but their head was still on official leave as of this writing.Clinging to hopeFor Cortes’ surviving family, it was thankful to the local police for diligently investigating the case.Kitt Matus-Cortes, the murdered broadcaster’s widow, told SunStar Cebu that she thanked CIDG 7’s investigators for continuously updating them with their investigation.“To be fair to CIDG [investigators], they have been diligent in investigating my husband’s case. They even visited us twice just to follow-up with the case,” Kitt said in a mix of Cebuano and English.Kitt said that during her husband’s death anniversary last July 22, she and her children held a simple celebration at Cortes’ gravesite.Kit said she has remained hopeful that her husband’s killers will be brought to justice. (with JKV)