Retaliation for drug raids seen in cop’s slay in Antipolo

Crispin Corpin, the gunman in the killing of Police Officer 3 Don Carlo Mangui. Photo by Johanna Ballaran

Investigators are looking into the possibility that the Camp Crame-based policeman shot dead in Antipolo City, Rizal province on May 20 was killed in retaliation for the series of drug raids conducted in the area where he used to live.

This angle came up after authorities identified the three suspects in the killing of PO3 Don Carlo Mangui and arrested one of them.

Mangui, who was assigned at the crime laboratory in Crame, was visiting his old neighborhood in Barangay Dela Paz, Antipolo City, when shot dead while having drinks with friends. Three men carried out the attack.

The police later came up with three suspects, all residents from the same barangay: Crispin Pormal Corpin, Archie “Jovan” Calagday Casas and Alvin Dolim.

Corpin, described by the police as having been in and out of jail several times, was arrested in a “pursuit operation” at Barangay San Isidro on May 22.

He was positively identified by the wife of Mangui’s friend and one of two bystanders whom the suspects fired upon as they fled along Marcos Highway .

In a press conference at Camp Crame on Wednesday, Calabarzon police director, Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar, said Mangui “may have been suspected (by drug syndicates) of giving information” to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, which recently arrested 82 drug suspects in Antipolo in a joint operation with the police.

Eleazar said investigations were continuing to determine whether Mangui’s murder was related to other killings in the area and if any crime group was behind it. —Jaymee T. Gamil