Gunman in Nueva Ecija mayor’s killing falls in Quezon City

MANILA, Philippines—A suspected hired gun tagged in the assassination of a Nueva Ecija municipal mayor in February has been arrested by intelligence agents of the Philippine National Police while allegedly casing his next target in Quezon City, police said.

Jonathan Carpio, 31, the object of a region-wide manhunt in Central Luzon in connection with the murder of Mayor Restituto Abad of Carranglan, was arrested by operatives of the PNP Intelligence Group Saturday while “apparently staking out his next target,” the PNP said.

In a report to PNP Director General Nicanor Bartolome, the IG director, Chief Superintendent  Charles Calima Jr. said Carpio was arrested in Barangay Gulod, Novaliches, Quezon City.

Carpio yielded a .45-caliber Armscor pistol and “a picture of what appeared to be the suspect’s next target for assassination, including a location sketch of the target’s workplace and descriptions of the target’s vehicles,” Calima said in a statement issued by the PNP’s public information office.

During debriefing, the suspect told investigators he was paid an initial P20,000 by a man he identified only as Pete to carry out the assassination of his next target, who was not named in the PNP statement.

On February 4, Carpio was riding in the back of a motorcycle driven by Jose Bernalin Pascual when he allegedly shot Mayor Abad at close range in Barangay Saranay, Guimba, Nueva Ecija.

The driver was promptly arrested by responding policemen after he crashed the getaway motorbike, while Mayor Abad expired five days later at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City.

Pascual cooperated in the investigation and pointed to Carpio, who had managed to escape, as the gunman, the police said.

Judge Serafin Cruz of the Regional Trial Court Branch 86 of Cabanatuan City issued a warrant for Carpio’s arrest. The suspect was also facing 12 separate counts of electricity pilferage filed in 2007 and 2008 by the Cabanatuan Electric Corp.

Calima said a reward of P1 million was earlier put up by Nueva Ecija Governor Aurelio Umali for any information leading to the arrest of Abad’s killers. The victim’s family also separately offered a P100,000 reward.