Park contractor named brains in Nueva Ecija mayor’s slay

MANILA, Philippines — The murder of General Tinio town mayor Ferdinand Bote has been solved but investigators continue to pursue other individuals implicated in the crime, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said yesterday.

Director General Oscar Albayalde, PNP chief, pointed out in a press briefing that the Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) Bote would do its work until all other suspects—contractor Christian Saquilabon, spotter Jun Fajardo, a driver of a black motorcycle used in the killings and two John Does—are accounted for.

At the same briefing, Chief Superintendent Amador Corpus, Central Luzon police regional director, pointed out that a dispute on the P96-million construction project at the Minalungao Eco-Tourism Park in Nueva Ecija is the motive for Bote’s murder.

He added that Saquilabon, owner of a construction firm, “masterminded” the killing after the mayor reportedly gave him a hard time in securing all the project permits.

“The motive of the incident is associated with projects dispute… Saquilabon and Bote turned out to be competitors in the bidding for the eco-tourism park but Saquilabon bagged the project. However, Saquilabon had difficulty getting all permits for the project from the local government. Christian (Saquilabon) said ‘sobra na siya sa panggigipit.’ We are documenting these reports,” said Corpus.

Local chief executives sign the permits of businesses in their jurisdictions.

Last week, the police intercepted at a checkpoint in Camarines Sur a vehicle believed to have been used in the killing, leading to the arrest of suspects Florencio Suarez and Robert Gumacay.

Corpus said gunmen Suarez and Gumacay, who were arrested in Camarines Sur last week and initially charged for illegal possession of firearms, confessed and named Saquilabon as the one who ordered and paid them P25,000 to kill Bote.

They attacked Bote and his driver in front of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) office in Cabanatuan City.

Based on the confession of Suarez and Gumacay, Suarez said, the plan to assassinate Bote was made on July 1, a Sunday, and executed on a Tuesday or just two days later.

“We are ready to file the case. We have witnesses who identified the suspects; second, we recovered firearms which get a positive result when cross-matched with the guns used in the killing of Bote; third, the vehicle recovered also matched with the one used by Bote’s assassins; fourth, the extrajudicial confession of three people that led to Avanza and Fortuner. These are all complete, this is an airtight case with physical and testimonial evidence compiled by SITG,” Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) chief Director Roel Obusan said.

A case for murder will be filed before the prosecutor’s office today.

A police diagram showed eight suspects who participated in the killing, with Saquilabon having contacted Suarez for the hit.

“We are not discounting the possibility that someone higher than Saquilabon could have ordered and financed the killing,” Albayalde said. He refused to elaborate.

Authorities said Saquilabon already sent a feeler to police officials to deny his participation in the killing. The police would also conduct a deeper investigation on the details of the contract and on what happened to the DPWH project.

Albayalde said the SITG Bote “operatives are now hot on the trail of three more identified suspects, one of them is believed to be the mastermind, Christian Saquilabon.”

Although the case is considered solved, it is not yet closed as authorities continue their pursuit, said Obusan.

He added that forensic evidence bolstered the revelations and extrajudicial confessions made by Suarez and Gumacay. A third suspect, Arnold Gamboa, later surrendered to authorities and strengthened the allegations.

Forensic science

While the probes in the murders of other local government executives have had major breakthroughs, Albayalde said investigators are also pursuing good leads in the assassination of Tanauan City mayor Antonio Halili.

“I have talked to PRO4A police regional director (Chief Superintendent Edwardo Carranza) and their investigation is heading in the right direction,” he said, pointing out that it is relying heavily on forensics.

The community, he added, also contributed to the resolution of the killing as investigators are pursuing three persons of interest who could shed light on the case.

Carranza said two of these individuals are involved in illegal drugs. He refused to elaborate.

Investigators are looking into three motives on the Halili slay: personal, work or business.

Albayalde said investigators applied the same investigative framework that led to the arrest of the killers of lawyer Madonna Joy Tanyag of the Office of the Ombudsman and Fr. Richmond Nilo.

“In both the Bote and (Cavite vice mayor Alex) Lubigan cases, the respective SITG did a good job of effectively coordinating all efforts of the local PNP Units, Intelligence community and National Support Units to achieve positive results that led us deeper in the investigation into the circumstances surrounding these murders,” he explained. – With Delon Porcalla