Trader tagged in killing of Batangas barangay chief nabbed

Arrest (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)

BATANGAS CITY — The suspect in the killing of a barangay (village) chief in Batangas was arrested in Pampanga and was turned over to the Batangas police on Tuesday night, police said Wednesday.

Senior Inspector John Conrad Villanueva, police chief of the Mataas na Kahoy in Batangas, said that Pampanga police turned over to them Edwin Bukid, 42, at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Bukid,  a businessman and a resident of Candelaria town in Quezon province, is one of the suspects in the killing of Jacinto Gardiola, chairman of Barangay 2 in Mataas na Kahoy town in Batangas.  Gardiola was killed on March 2, 2016, in front of a car wash establishment by two gunmen riding a motorcycle.

The killers shot Gardiola in different parts of the body. The victim managed to retaliate and killed one of the suspects, who was identified as Pedro Magracia, 63.

Bukid was arrested in Paroba, Matamo Arayat in Pampanga on Monday by the Sta. Ana town police in Pampanga, on a warrant of arrest issued by Judge Danilo Sandoval of the Lipa City regional trial court, for murder.

Villanueva added that the firearm used in the killing of Gardiola was registered to Bukid.  SFM