Cops tag brains behind slay of Ecija mayor
The Philippine National Police (PNP) has identified the person who allegedly hired the gunmen who killed mayor Ferdinand Bote of General Tinio, Nueva Ecija last July 3.
PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said yesterday the name of the person was revealed by Robertlyn Gumacay, one of two alleged gunmen arrested in Del Gallego, Camarines Sur last Wednesday.
The PNP chief, however, did not disclose the name of the suspect who hired
the gunmen.
Albayalde said Gumacay confessed to his involvement in Bote’s killing and disclosed the name of the person who hired them.
“That’s why the person he mentioned whom we cannot name right now is a subject of our manhunt,” Albayalde said during the 26th Association of Firearms and Ammunition Dealers of the Philippines (AFAD) Defense and Sporting Arms Show in Mandaluyong City.
The other suspect, Florencio Suarez, also confessed that he too shot Bote in Cabanatuan City after the mayor’s Toyota Fortuner car left the National Irrigation Administration office.
Gumacay and Suarez were stopped at a checkpoint along the Andayan National Highway in Barangay Cabasag. The two were on board a beige Toyota Avanza with license plate PGQ 134.
At least eight firearms, mostly .45 caliber pistols, were recovered in their possession and are being subjected to ballistics examination.
Following the revelations of the two, Abayalde said business rivalry now appears as the likely motive for the killing of Bote.
Bote had a quarry business in Nueva Ecija and allegedly had other government projects in the province.
“What we are seeing here is it has to do with business,” he said.
Tawi-Tawi probe
Zamboanga police authorities created a task group to speed up investigation on the killing of Vice Mayor Al-rasid Mohammad Lipae Ali of Sapa-Sapa, Tawi-Tawi last Wednesday afternoon.
Senior Supt Alan Nazarro, acting chief of Zamboanga City Police Office (ZCPO), said the task group will investigate and coordinate with their counterpart in TawiTawi to help solve the killing of Ali.
Ali, 53, was on board a Toyota Innova service vehicle with his wife, daughter and an aide, when the vice mayor was shot dead by a lone assailant about 5:20 p.m along Gov. Alvarez Street in Zamboanga City.
Nazarro said the victim’s vehicle stopped when the traffic light turned red at the intersection along Governor Alvarez Street and the gunman shot the vice mayor inside the car four times using a caliber .45 pistol.
“While the victim’s vehicle was at full stop waiting for the traffic light, the gunman casually walked towards the right side passing in front of the vehicle and then pagtapat sa side ni vice mayor binaril niya (when he got to the side of the vice mayor he fired),” Nazarro said.
Ali died from three gunshot wounds in his chest as he was rushed to the nearby Doctor’s Hospital.
The remains of Ali were flown by his family Thursday morning aboard a chartered plane to Tawi-Tawi for burial following Muslim rites.
Nazarro said they have not yet established the motive of the shooting.
However, he said the victim’s family told them Wednesday night that Ali had been receiving threats.
Nazarro said they are looking at politics as one of the possible motives for the murder of the vice mayor.
He said Ali was being groomed to run for mayor in next year’s elections since his father Alsaggab Lee Mohammad Ali, incumbent mayor of Sapa-Sapa, is serving his third and last term in office.
Albayalde said yesterday politics could be a motive behind the killing of Ali.
Nazarro said the town’s treasurer was also gunned down in the area last year. He did not say if the cases were related.
Meanwhile, Nazarro discounted the possible illegal drugs angle as the victim was not in the drug list.
“Actually, when we checked the list, his name was not included,” Nazarro said.