Manhunt on for person of interest in slay try of Pasay barangay chair

Inquirer.net file photo

The Pasay City police said homicide investigators  already have a person of interest to help solve the attempted killing of a barangay chairwoman in the city.

Supt. Deanry Francisco, the assistant police chief and head investigator of Pasay police, said on Friday they have the identity of the owner of the blue Ford Fiesta (TIE 438) which was used as a getaway vehicle of the suspects.

He, however, could not disclose the person’s identity to the media so as not to jeopardize the manhunt operation.

Around 3 a.m. on Aug. 1, two male gunmen wearing blue jacket and face masks alighted from the hatchback and went inside building of Barangay 190 in Don Carlos Revilla Village.

The suspects then went on the second floor to the office of barangay chair Alma Pichay, who was not inside the room. When the suspects knocked and did not hear a reply, they shot the door thrice and went down to the first floor where they shot at the three barangay watchmen.

Henry Decano, one of the watchmen, was only grazed on the left knee fortunately. At least 14 pieces of fired cartridges from a cal. 40 pistol were recovered.

The suspects then escaped using the Ford Fiesta, but were chased by policemen of the Baclaran police community precinct.

During the chase, one of the suspects threw out the firearm used, a Glock 22 cal. 40 firearm with a serial number of AABK086, loaded with seven live ammunition in its magazine.

Eventually they found the Ford Fiesta already abandoned in the said village.

Police said they were still waiting of the results of the verification of the owner of the firearm from the Firearms and Explosives Office in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

When the Inquirer went to Barangay 190 on Friday evening, one of the barangay officers said Pichay had been no longer staying since Tuesday in her office “for fear of her life.”

“Even us, barangay officers and watchmen, sometimes don’t want to go here for our safety,” she said. Members of Baclaran PCP were already deployed to guard the barangay hall.

Francisco said the person of interest was also connected to the suspect of the ambush of a member of Pasay police antidrugs unit in 2015.

The police official said the motive wasn’t clear yet, but they were looking that it was related to drugs.

“Maybe they want to silence Pichay, since she was very cooperative on dealing with drug suspects in her barangay,” Francisco said, noting that Pasay police earned an accomplishment for the number of drug suspects arrested in Barangay 190.