2nd suspect in Angeles shooting falls

Another suspect in the shooting and mauling of a Malacañang reporter for The Daily Tribune has been arrested by the police in Pasig City.

Superintendent Alfredo Calama-an, officer in charge of the Pasig police, said Sunday that Quirino Turingan, who is also known by his aliases “Junior Payat” and

“Junior Praning,” was initially arrested in a drug bust on Saturday.

However, he was later positively identified by Tribune reporter Fernan Angeles as one of the men who mauled him and then shot him near his house earlier this year.

Turingan, 41, and his companion Danilo Penas, were arrested in an entrapment operation conducted by members of the Pasig City antiillegal drugs unit on Baltazar Street in Barangay Pinagbuhatan,

Pasig City, around 4 p.m. the other day.

“Before our men carried out the operation, they had no idea that one of their subjects was the suspect in the reporter’s shooting. [Turingan] has been in our watch list for a long time now,” Calama-an said over the phone.

The police, however, asked Angeles to come to the station to see if he could identify Turingan as one of those who  attacked him on March 11.

On that day, Angeles was mauled and shot seven times by a group of men in a dark alley in Pasig City, just several meters away from his house. He believes that the attack against him was work-related due to his previous attempts to expose a  drug syndicate operating in Pasig City.

A week after the shooting, one of the suspected gunmen identified as Faisal Sangcopan was arrested and brought to court.

According to a police source, Sangcopan had previously been described in an intelligence report as a “level 4 drug dealer in the hierarchy of the illegal drugs trade.”

“We asked [Angeles] to execute an affidavit so we can file the appropriate charges against [Turingan],” Calama-an said.

The police, however, are also preparing to charge him and his companion with violating Section 5 of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 also known as Republic Act No. 9165.

During the entrapment operation, authorities recovered three sachets of suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride or “shabu” and the marked money used in the transaction.