'Killing of Tapaz Vice Mayor, two others 90% solved'
Following the arrest of a suspect in the assassination of Tapaz Vice Mayor Victor Gardose and two others, police say that the politically-motivated killing is almost solved.
"Case is 90% solved," Task Force Gardose head, Senior Superintendent Reynaldo Rafal said.
"We have made an arrest but we can't give the name yet," Rafal said, explaining that he was not authorized to divulge the details of the arrest.
According to local radio stations, a certain Noel Fuentespina was arrested Friday morning in Capiz. Fuentespina is said to be the driver of Board Member Ronaldo Exmundo and an ex-Marine. PO3 Danilo Gelilang, the bodyguard of Mayor Romualdo Exmundo, is still restricted in the Capiz Provincial Police Office undergoing investigation into his possible involvement in the killing.
The latest arrest follows the putting up of a P500,000-cash reward for whoever gives information leading to the identification and arrest of the killers of Tapaz Vice Mayor Victor Gardose and two others.
Capiz provincial director, Sr. Superintendent Cipriano Querol welcomed the cash reward.
"What is good is that we can now encourage witnesses to come out in the open,"Querol said Friday.
With the reward money, Rafal expects more witnesses to surface because of the cash reward.
Governor Vicente Bermejo, Tapaz Mayor Romualdo Exmundo, the Tapaz municipal council, and the members of the business community contributed funds to come up with the reward money, Querol said.
So far, the police have four witnesses in their custody.
"Hopefully they can describe, through an artist's sketch, the assassin," he said.
Witnesses will also be shown photos of known guns for hire, Querol said. Intelligence units have photos of suspected assassins, he added.
Gardose, his bodyguard Antonio Gequillo, and punong barangay Leonardo Jimeno of Brgy. Carida were shot dead as they were alighting from the vice mayor's owner-type jeep at around 7 p.m. last December 30.
Two men on a motorcycle followed the victims to the civic center of Barangay Taft. A masked gunman approached the victims and shot them at close range.
Investigators have already taken into custody Police Officer 3 Danilo Gelilang, bodyguard of Exmundo, for his possible involvement in the assassination.
Querol said that the victims were killed by a professional gunman, "someone who is a professional shooter."
He noted that the killer changed magazine without emptying all the bullets.
"Because if you empty your magazine, you will have an open bolt. You will again have to cock the firearm, entailing delay," he pointed out.
Maybe the killer was anticipating that the bodyguard was armed, Querol surmised.