The suspect in the killing of a Taguig policeman last month was recaptured by authorities Saturday after he escaped from his police escorts while confined at a Manila hospital.
Senior Superintendent Tomas Apolinario, Taguig chief of police, said suspect Michael Manansala was arrested along with five people, including two women, at a rented apartment in San Pedro, Laguna, around 1 a.m.
Apolinario said some 40 police personnel from Taguig City Police and the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) swooped down on the suspects’ hideout around 1 a.m. after they were tipped off that Manansala had been hiding in the area.
Two of Manansala’s male companions were also found to have police records for robbery cases in San Pedro, the police official said, adding that the suspects were known to be members of a notorious robbery syndicate.
Manansala was tagged as one of the two suspects in the death of Police Officer 1 Venerando Pantino of the National Capital Region Police Office Public Safety Battalion last June 15. The suspects engaged Pantino in a shoot-out after they tried to rob an eatery owned by the victim’s in-laws.
Manansala, who sustained multiple gunshot wounds as a result of the encounter, had been confined at the Philippine General Hospital. However, at around noon on Thursday, he managed to escape from his security escorts Police Officers 1 Danilo Vega and Joseph Ventura.
Apolinario immediately ordered the relief of Vega and Ventura who also face criminal and administrative charges.
“They will charged with infidelity in the custody of a prisoner and they are now under restrictive custody,” he said of Vega and Ventura.
Apolinario said they were still investigating how Manansala managed to escape. But he said a witness saw Manansala riding a motorcycle driven by an unidentified man.
“We’re still trying to establish if there was connivance between the suspect and his police escorts,” he said, adding that he found out that one of the two policemen assigned to guard Manansala was absent.