Police looking into report mastermind paid P20 M for King slay

MANILA, Philippines — The still unidentified mastermind behind the June 12 killing of hotelier Richard King reportedly paid P20 million for the assassination of the Cebu City-based businessman, the Philippine National Police said Wednesday.

Chief Superintendent Wendy Rosario, Southern Mindanao police chief, said investigators were looking into the possibility King’s killing was related to the murder of an Ati leader on Boracay Island in February last year.

“Based on what we’ve heard, the group [that carried out the killing of King] received P20 million. We are now verifying that information,” Rosario told a news briefing at Camp Crame.

With the arrest and the filing of murder charges against three men who confessed participation in the killing, Rosario said the police now considered the case solved.

“As far as we are concerned, we believe we have an airtight case against the suspects,” he said.

Superintendent Leonardo Felonia, who was sacked as chief of the PNP Regional Intelligence Unit in Southern Mindanao after he was implicated in the killing, has been placed under police custody after he turned himself in to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on Monday.

However, Rosario admitted the police had no evidence against Felonia besides the extrajudicial confession of Paul Dave Labang, who said it was he who shot King inside his office in Barrio Obrero in Davao City.

Rommel dela Cerna and his brother Rodel had also confessed being the lookout and the driver of the getaway motorcycle, respectively.

In their separate affidavits, the brothers claimed Felonia arranged for them to kill the hotelier.

“Other than the confession of Labang, we don’t have concrete evidence to link Felonia. All we have is the testimony of the self-confessed gunman which was corroborated by the Dela Cerna brothers,” Rosario said.

He said police investigators were also checking  reports that there were “internal conflicts within” King’s businesses, including the alleged mismanagement of one of his companies which had incurred P150 million in losses.

Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas lauded the police for their efforts to solve the King killing, saying their action was a “textbook example of a systematic and methodical investigation aided by forensic science, proper police investigative procedure and criminal intelligence.”

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