Former Laguna mayor, vice mayor-son nabbed for police officer’s slay

Combined elements of the Laguna and Southern Tagalog police arrested a former town mayor and his vice-mayor son for the slaying of a deputy police chief early this month.

Former mayor Felix Carpio was nabbed in a drinking bout at the residence of former barangay chairman Oscar Tuls at about 4 p.m. last Saturday in Barangay San Miguel, Mabitac town. His son, Mabitac Vice Mayor Judeo Carpio, was arrested on the same day in Barangay Prang Uno, Lumban town.

The Carpios, according to reports reaching Camp Crame, were implicated in the fatal shooting of SPO3 Francisco Garcia, deputy chief of the Mabitac police, along the national highway last Dec. 16.

Superintendent Victorio Caragang Jr., spokesman of the Laguna police, said the Carpios were apprehended by virtue of warrants of arrest issued by Judge Nicolas Fadul Jr.

Garcia was on his way to his farm on board a bicycle, when two men armed with short firearms blocked his way and shot him at close range.

The gunmen took Garcia’s 9 mm service pistol and escaped aboard a tricycle toward the direction of Famy, Laguna.

Witnesses have tagged the Carpios as the gunmen, police said. — Christina Mendez