5 witnesses in Orsolino slay surface

Five witnesses who came forward to volunteer information on the suspects in the murder of tabloid photojournalist Alberto Orsolino last Tuesday in Caloocan City provided cops with at least two names of possible gunmen, police said.

"The leads are good but we need to find the suspects," Superintendent Jimili Macaraeg, Northern Police District (NPD) intelligence and investigation division chief, said.

Macaraeg disclosed that based on initial information gathered by police investigators, Orsolino’s slay is not worked-related.

Senior Superintendent Geronimo Reside, Caloocan City police chief and head of Task Force Orsolino, which was created to conduct a thorough investigation into the killing, identified one of the suspects as Roberto Flores, 49, a fireman and a resident of Dasmariñas, Cavite.

Flores reportedly owned the red motorcycle, with license plate UN-4534, used by the suspects in the murder of Orsolino.

Reside said that Flores is considered a suspect in the case for his failure to show any document to justify his claim that he had already sold the motorcycle to a certain Jojo Bombay before the incident.

The Traffic Management Group (TMG) also told the task force that the motorcycle is not subject to any alarm and was not reported stolen.

The task force operatives went to Flores’ house in Dasmariñas, Cavite before dawn yesterday and invited him to explain how his motorcycle landed in the hands of Orsolino’s killers.

The task force is also looking into reports that there may be a third suspect — a woman who reportedly first fired at Orsolino before her two motorcycle-riding companions chased the newsman and fired at him.

Orsolino, a resident and barangay kagawad in Tonsuya, Malabon City, had a row with the family of a suspected drug pusher killed in their barangay last year. He was tagged as the gunman.

The victim’s family charged him with murder in court but the case was later dismissed. Orsolino was then reportedly marked for execution.

A recent death threat Orsolino received said that he would be liquidated before the death anniversary of the suspected pusher, which was last night.