MANILA, Philippines — Even the Philippine National Police (PNP) is having doubts about the unanticipated death of the supposed middleman in the ambush-slaying of broadcaster Percy Lapid.
In a press conference Monday, PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. was asked about his thoughts on the sudden death of the inmate who was implicated by confessed gunman Joel Escorial as the person that gave instructions on the killing of Lapid, whose real name was Percival Mabasa.
Azurin even noted the seeming lack of cooperation by the Bureau of Corrections, which supervises the country’s main penitentiary the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) – or commonly, Bilibid.
“Parang gano’n kasi nga. Sabi ko nga, parang napaka ‘kwan naman ng, naging incidental or ano na, in the course ng ongoing investigation, biglang kung sino pa ‘yong hinahanap natin na tao, ‘di ba?” he said.
(It looks like that. As I said, it seemed somewhat incidental or what, in the course of the ongoing investigation, suddenly it happened to the one we’ve been for, right?)
During the October 18 press briefing where Escorial was presented to the public, he claimed that “someone from Bilibid” gave the orders to kill Lapid. He did not name the person, but the police later on identified the alleged middleman as Crisanto Villamor. Subsequently, Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla said Villamor is already dead.
READ: ‘Middleman from prison’ in Percy Lapid slay identified, facing drug-related raps =
Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos said Villamor was reported “dead on arrival” at the NBP hospital at 2:05 p.m. on October 18 – few hours after Escorial was presented to the public and revealed details about the ambush-slay case.
According to Azurin, even before Escorial disclosed to the public that someone from Bilibid was giving then directives about killing Lapid, the PNP already took measures to check with the NBP whether the name “Crisanto Villamor” matches anyone inside their facilities.
The NBP, he said, replied saying there was none.
Azurin said they had expected the NBP to have carefully segregated inmates’ names that has the same family name to effectively find out. He said it appeared that Villamor’s first name, based on the birth certificate provided by his parents, differs from the one he used as an alias.
“Apparently nga, wala daw ‘yong gano’ng pangalan pero sa atin naman sa investigation, when you coordinate, ‘pag sinabing ‘Villamor’, lahat ng ‘Villamor’ ise-segregate mo na because alam naman natin na ‘yong mga kriminal ay maraming mga aliases na ginagamit. But parang ang nangyari do’n is hindi tayo na-furnishan ng tamang sitwasyon do’n no’ng sinabing wala ‘yong gano’ng pangalan ay parang nawala na,” Azurin said.
(Apparently, there was no person with that name in NBP, but on our part in an investigation, when you coordinate when we say ‘Villamor’, you already segregate all ‘Villamor’ because we know that criminals use many aliases. But apparently, what happened was that we were not furnished with the proper situation when they said the name was not found on their records.)
“Dapat sana, we expected that sabi ko nga i-segregate muna lahat ng same na family name so that ituturo na lang no’ng triggerman kung sino among those, kung talagang kilala niya ‘yong middleman […] the appropriate thing dapat na nangyari do’n since may early warning naman na ginawa ‘yong police natin is i-segregate mo ‘yong lahat na may family name na gano’n so that at least man lang ay masabi natin na nakitaan natin sila ng cooperation,” he added.
(What should have happened was, since we expected, as I said, that they would segregate first all those with the same family name so that the triggerman would just point who among those, if he really knew the middleman…the appropriate thing that should have been done was, since there was already an early warning from the police, to segregate all with the Villamor family name so that at least we could say that we saw cooperation from them.)
Almost there
Azurin then lamented how the police investigation was affected by such a “setback.” Nevertheless, he gave assurance that the PNP still has sufficient leads to solve the case.
“Of course — kung titignan mo ‘yong setback kasi doon, kung titignan mo, we’re almost there eh. Na-identify na natin ‘yong triggerman, na-recover natin ‘yong ebidensya, parang ano ‘yan eh, we’re almost there para sana makausap natin ‘yong middleman nga na si Villamor,” he said.
(Of course — if you would note the setback there, if you would note, we’re almost there already. The triggerman was already identified, we already recovered the evidence, it’s like we’re almost there to talk to the middleman who was Villamor.)
“But be that as it may, ‘yong mga lead naman ay may mga indications na meron na tayong persons of interest na tinitignan kung sino ‘yong mga probable na may kinalaman sa pagkamatay ni Percy,” he added.
(But be that as it may, the leads nevertheless have indications that we already have persons of interest that we can check to determine those probable that had involvement in the death of Percy.)
Lapid was gunned down at a gate of the neighborhood where he lived last October 3 .
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