Witnesses in NAIA-3 killings now under gov’t protection

AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines —The Department of Justice has placed two witnesses in the Dec. 20 killing of Mayor Ocol Talumpa of Labangan, Zamboanga del Sur, under its Witness Protection Program.

Justice Secretary Leila De Lima said the two witnesses have already submitted their sworn statements on the ambush, in which the mayor’s wife, their nephew and a toddler who happened to be at the airport with his parents were also killed.

“These witnesses were just three or four feet away from the mayor during the incident and they actually saw it and heard [the gunman say] ‘Mayor, Mayor, para kay Mayor Kitty Nandang eto’,” De Lima said.

Wilson “Kitty” Nandang is a former mayor of Labangan and a political rival of Talumpa. Talumpa’s eldest daughter, Rayam,  recently implicated Nandang in the killing of her parents and cousin.

De Lima said the two witnesses have positively identified the gunman and his companion. She also said the witnesses knew the gunman, whom they claimed came from their province.

Last week, the police filed murder and frustrated murder charges against Marrox Genem Amlong and two John Does in the Pasay Prosecutor’s office.

Talumpa’s daughter said that Amlong was a former security aide of Nandang.

Amlong and the other suspects are now the object of a police hunt.

Earlier, De Lima said the National Bureau of Investigation, which was conducting a parallel probe, was eyeing three possible and related motives in the killing of Talumpa and all involved Nandang.

But she had declined to say whether the former Labangan mayor was a suspect in the killing of his rival.

She also disclosed that Rayam Talumpa had written her to seek protection for her family and the witnesses as they have been getting death threats.

Last Dec. 20, Talumpa, who was with a group of 12 people, had just arrived in Metro Manila for a vacation  when his party was attacked on the driveway at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport’s Terminal 3 by two men on a motorcycle. The man who turned out to be the gunman wore a fake uniform of a policeman.

Killed in the attack was the mayor, his wife Lea and nephew Salipudin. One-year-old Philip Thomas Lirasan, whose family was just standing nearby, was killed also.

Five others were wounded in the attack—two from the Talumpa family and three from the Lirasan family.

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