Frustrated murder rap filed vs suspect in Tribune reporter’s shooting

MANILA, Philippines—The police on Monday filed frustrated murder charges against one of the suspects in the shooting of The Daily Tribune reporter Fernan Angeles, enabling officials of the Eastern Police District to declare the case as solved.

“Since the charges were already filed and one of the suspects had been taken into police custody, we consider the case solved,” said Senior Supt. Danilo Maligalig, acting EPD’s director for operations.

Faisal Sancopan surrendered to the authorities through Pasig City Councilor Rodrigo Asilo on Saturday after he was tagged as one of the men who shot Angeles in Barangay Palatiw, near his residence.

A reporter covering the Malacañang beat, he remained confined at the Pasig City General Hospital and was still recovering from the seven gunshot wounds in his body, as of Monday.

Maligalig expressed hope that the apprehension of the suspect would erase the impression that the higher ups of EPD were muddling the case when Angeles’ pending warrant of arrest in relation to a 2011 drug possession case surfaced last week.

“Our men worked hard to be able to track down the suspect. We were never remiss in our duties,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

He reiterated that the arrest warrant only cropped up last week when reporters asked about it at a press briefing.

“We were compelled to say the truth. What should we do with the warrant? We are likewise duty bound to serve it no matter whose name is in it,” he said.

But what has remained a big question to the Special Investigation Task Group Angeles was the motive behind the attempt on the reporter’s life, if it was related to his media work or not.

“Bakit nyo binaril at halos patayin? (Why did you shoot him and almost kill him),” Angeles’ wife Gemma asked Sancopan upon seeing him at the Pasig prosecutor’s office before the inquest proceedings.

To which, Sancopan responded: “Paanong binaril e hindi ko naman siya kilala (How could I have shot him when I did not even know him?)”

A police official privy to the investigation who requested anonymity said Faisal was described in an intelligence report as a “level 4 drug dealer in the hierarchy of the illegal drugs trade.”

“He was selling a few grams of shabu (metamphetamine hydrochloride) to a small network of people,” the official told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in an interview.

“We are curious. What was Angeles doing at that time and at that place in the company of a known drug personality?” he said.

He said the circumstances before the shooting can only be answered by Angeles himself after his recovery from his wounds.

Gemma Angeles had repeatedly denied her husband’s involvement in the local drugs trade saying he would have only faced libel cases.

Two other suspects identified only as Basare and JR remain at large and are still being hunted down by authorities.